Breakdown of ¡Qué colina tan empinada! Incluso el sillín me duele ahora.
ahora
now
qué
what
me
to me / me (direct object)
doler
to hurt / to ache
tan
as / so
empinado
steep
incluso
even (including)
la colina
the hill
el sillín
saddle
Questions & Answers about ¡Qué colina tan empinada! Incluso el sillín me duele ahora.
Could I use hasta instead of incluso in this sentence?
Why is there a tan in ¡Qué colina tan empinada!? Doesn't qué already mean "what a"?
In Spanish, when you make an exclamation using qué + noun + adjective, you need to insert tan (or sometimes más) before the adjective. Without it, the sentence feels incomplete or unnatural. So, "What a steep hill!" translates to ¡Qué colina tan empinada! (which literally translates closer to "What a hill so steep!").
Why does the sentence use me duele instead of conjugating the verb for "I"?
The verb doler (to hurt or ache) works just like gustar. The thing causing the pain is the grammatical subject, and the person feeling it is the indirect object (me). So, el sillín me duele literally means "the saddle causes pain to me".
Does sillín just mean a small chair?
While it comes from silla (chair), sillín specifically refers to the saddle or seat of a bicycle or motorcycle. Given the context of struggling up a steep hill (una colina empinada), the speaker was definitely riding a bike! For a normal car or train seat, you would use asiento.
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