Breakdown of El niño llora porque le duele el estómago.
el niño
the boy
porque
because
llorar
to cry
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
doler
to hurt / to ache
el estómago
the stomach
Questions & Answers about El niño llora porque le duele el estómago.
Why do we use le duele instead of just duele?
Does duele match the boy or the stomach?
It matches the stomach! Because doler works like gustar, the body part causing the pain is the actual subject of the sentence. Since el estómago is one thing, we use the singular form duele. If his legs were hurting, we would use the plural form: le duelen las piernas.
The English translation says "his stomach", so why does the Spanish say el estómago instead of su estómago?
In Spanish, when talking about body parts, you almost always use the definite article (el, la, los, las) rather than possessive words like su (his/her) or mi (my). The le earlier in the sentence already makes it completely clear whose stomach is hurting.
Is porque the same as the word for "why"?
Not quite, but they are very close! Porque (written as one word with no accent) means "because." If you want to ask "why?", you have to split it into two words and add an accent mark over the "e": ¿Por qué?.
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