Learn Spanish (Latin America): Me duele la boca.

Me duele la boca.

My mouth hurts.

Breakdown of Me duele la boca.

to me / me (direct object)

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Spanish (Latin America) grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Spanish (Latin America) now

Questions & Answers about Me duele la boca.

Why does it say Me duele instead of translating 'My mouth hurts' exactly?

The verb doler works just like gustar. Instead of saying 'My mouth hurts,' the Spanish phrasing works more like 'The mouth causes pain to me.' The Me means 'to me,' and duele matches the thing causing the pain.

Why do we use la boca instead of mi boca for 'my mouth'?

In Spanish, when you talk about body parts, you almost always use the definite articles for 'the' (el, la, los, las) instead of possessive words like mi or tu. Because we already used me (to me) at the start, it is perfectly clear whose mouth is hurting!

If the dictionary verb is doler, why is it spelled duele here?

Doler is a stem-changing verb. This means that in most of its forms, the o in the middle changes to ue. Since the mouth (la boca) is a single thing, we use the 'it' form of the verb, giving us duele.

How would the sentence change if my teeth (los dientes) hurt instead of my mouth?

You would change the verb to match a plural subject, just like you use gustan for multiple things. You would say Me duelen los dientes. The word me stays exactly the same because the pain is still happening to you.