Word
Mi padre tenía dolor en el cuello y en el codo después de la caída.
Meaning
My father had pain in his neck and elbow after the fall.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Mi padre tenía dolor en el cuello y en el codo después de la caída.
tener
to have
en
in
mi
my
después de
after
Questions & Answers about Mi padre tenía dolor en el cuello y en el codo después de la caída.
Is tener dolor a normal way to say to be in pain in Spanish?
Yes. Tener dolor en... is a normal and natural structure.
In this sentence, tenía dolor en el cuello y en el codo means he had pain in those areas.
Other common ways to express something similar are:
- Le dolía el cuello y el codo. = His neck and elbow hurt.
- Estaba dolorido. = He was sore / aching.
The version with tener dolor sounds a bit more neutral or descriptive, and it is very common in medical or everyday contexts.
Why is it tenía and not tuvo?
Because tenía is the imperfect, which is often used to describe an ongoing state or condition in the past.
Here, the sentence is describing your father’s condition after the fall: he was in pain.
- tenía dolor = he was having pain / he had pain
- tuvo dolor = he had pain, seen more as a completed event or bounded period
So tenía fits well when you are setting the scene or describing how someone felt.
Why does Spanish say el cuello and el codo instead of su cuello and su codo?