Direct, Indirect and Reflexive Pronouns

Question

I am working on pronouns in Spanish. I am struggling! It's very confusing. An example sentence is ¿Te duele el estómago? Is the correct answer Sí, se duele. ?? And any tips to help me determine which to use between direct, indirect and reflexive would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to SpanishDict. Please take a moment and complete your SD profile as it relates to language. Thanks. - rac1, Jul 23, 2015

Answer 1

Doler is usually used with an indirect object (although there is a reflexive usage as well)- we translate it as to hurt (which might make you think it needs a direct object) but if you think of it as meaning to give pain to it is more clearly indirect.

¿Te duele el estómago? Does the stomach give pain to you- Does your stomach hurt.

Sí, me duele (el estómago)= Yes, it (my stomach) hurts.

Read here for a very good description of the use of doler:

http://spanish.about.com/od/usingparticularverbs/a/doler.htm

The only tip I can give is that you have to do a lot of practice with different verbs until you get a sense for it.

Thank you for responding. I appreciate the help and the links you provided. :) - BeckyParries, Jul 23, 2015

Answer 2

If you go to the "Q&A" page you will see a box with a magnifying glass. type in what you need like "direct and indirect object pronouns" and a whole bunch of similar questions with their answers will pop up. I have answered this question numerous times.

Thank you for the helpful hint. I'm new to this and I can use all the help I can get. :) - BeckyParries, Jul 23, 2015