Questions & Answers about Me duele el oído.
Why does the sentence use el oído instead of mi oído?
In Spanish, you generally use definite articles (el, la, los, las) with body parts instead of possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su) when the owner is already clear. The indirect object pronoun me tells us exactly who is experiencing the pain, so el oído translates perfectly to 'my ear'.
What is the difference between oído and oreja?
Why is the verb duele if I am the one hurting?
The verb doler (to hurt or ache) works exactly like gustar. The body part is actually the subject of the sentence, and it is doing the action to you. Literally, this sentence means 'The ear causes pain to me.' Since el oído is singular, the verb takes the singular 'it' form (duele). If both ears hurt, you would use the plural form: Me duelen los oídos.
Why does duele have a 'ue' in the middle?
The verb doler is a stem-changing verb, meaning the o in the root changes to ue when that syllable is stressed. This is why the infinitive is doler, but the present tense forms you use most often are duele (it hurts) and duelen (they hurt).
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