Verb Doler Past tense

Question

¡Hola! So I'm looking at the verb doler which is like gustar. I'm trying the past tense so would it make sense to say me dolió ? Would it make sense to say me dolió mi espalda la semana pasada -as in to say I hurt my back last week-also is that the same as saying my back was hurting?

Im just not sure on whether I would use me dolió or me duele as me duele means I hurt

Can someone please explain this to me- that would be great! Thanks, sorry for any mistakes-my Spanish isn't great

You need to supply more context. - rac1, May 29, 2015

Answer 1

Hello Bonita,

Don't worry about making mistakes with your Spanish...it's all part of the learning process! The important thing is to keep learning from them!

1.Me dolía la espalda la semana pasada.

= My back was hurting last week.

2.Me hice daño en la espalda la semana pasada.

= I hurt my back last week.

When referring to parts of the body in Spanish you shpuld always use the appropriate definite articles ie: el or la that relate to the that specific part eg: el brazo, la espalda, not the personal pronouns yo, tú, él etc...

Me duele la cabeza = My head hurts. (present indicative)

Tengo un dolor de cabeza = I have a headache. (present indicative)

'I hurt my back last week' refers to a completed action that would necessitate (require) the use of the preterite or simple past! (Please see example 2 above) actions: I did my homework yesterday. He won a prize last week.

My back was hurting is referring to an action that began at some point in the past and its action has not been completed so you would need to use the imperfect indicative....actions: I was reading, I used to swim, it was raining last week etc...

I am sure that you can now see that the two sentences: I hurt my back and my back was hurting are not really the same!

I hope this helps

Corrijan mi español si es necesario, por favor

Muchas gracias! :D It really helped :) - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015

Good, I am pleased to hear that :) - FELIZ77, May 29, 2015

Answer 2

Lastimar/Lastimarse

Is often used instead of Doler here in Baja. Which makes me very happy as it is a regular verb while Doler is an irregular verb. But everything Feliz said in the great post above holds true.

I just wanted to point out another verb that you will hear a lot in this type of context.

Thanks you sooo much for that kind compliment about my post, Gringo :) - FELIZ77, May 31, 2015

De nada. You put some serious work into yur post. - gringojrf, May 31, 2015

Answer 3

I'm not native but reckon there are perhaps a few different ways of saying it, e.g.:

Me ha dolido [insert name of body part]

Me dolió [insert name of body part]

Tenía dolor de [insert name of body part]

Tuve dolor de [insert name of body part]

Muchas gracias - BonitaChica101, May 29, 2015