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Me duelen la rodilla y la pierna.

Me duelen la rodilla y la pierna.
My knee and my leg hurt.
From Lesson 49:Verbs like gustar (encantar, doler)·Spanish (Latin America)

Breakdown of Me duelen la rodilla y la pierna.

y
and
doler
to hurt / to ache
la pierna
the leg
la rodilla
the knee

Questions & Answers about Me duelen la rodilla y la pierna.

Why is the verb duelen plural if la rodilla (the knee) and la pierna (the leg) are both singular?
Verbs like doler (to hurt) work just like gustar. The things causing the pain are the actual subject of the sentence. Because there are two things hurting here (a knee and a leg), they combine to form a plural subject. Therefore, we use the plural verb form duelen.
Why does the sentence say la rodilla y la pierna (the knee and the leg) instead of mi rodilla y mi pierna (my knee and my leg)?
In Spanish, it is the standard rule to use definite articles (el, la, los, las) when talking about body parts, rather than possessives like mi (my). The pronoun me at the beginning of the sentence already makes it perfectly clear whose body parts are hurting!
What is the purpose of Me at the very beginning of the sentence?
Me tells us who is affected by the pain. Because verbs like doler work backwards compared to English, the literal translation of this sentence is closer to: "The knee and the leg cause pain to me."
Where does the ue in duelen come from?
The infinitive (dictionary form) of this verb is doler. It is a "stem-changing" verb, meaning the o in the middle changes to ue when we use it in the present tense (except for "we" and "you all"). So, it becomes duele for one thing that hurts, and duelen for multiple things.

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