Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Russian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Тебе больно?
Why does this sentence use тебе instead of ты?
In Russian, physical and emotional states are often expressed impersonally. Instead of saying "You are in pain," Russian structures it as "To you it is painful." The person experiencing the feeling is put in the Dative case, which is why we use the Dative pronoun тебе (to you) instead of the Nominative ты (you).
Where is the verb in this sentence?
The present tense of the verb "to be" (is/am/are) is normally omitted in Russian. Additionally, Russian doesn't use helper verbs like "do" or "does" to form questions. So, the statement "It hurts" is just Тебе больно, and adding a question mark and rising intonation turns it into the question "Does it hurt?".
Why does больно end in -о?
In impersonal expressions of state, the describing word takes a predicative adverb form ending in -о rather than a standard adjective form. You can think of it as literally asking, "Is it painfully to you?"
How would I ask "Did it hurt?" in the past tense?
To talk about the past in an impersonal sentence, you add the neuter past-tense verb было (it was). So, "Did it hurt?" becomes Тебе было больно?. It uses the neuter form because there is no specific grammatical subject (like a masculine or feminine noun) performing an action.