doler en el pasado

Question

Just wondering if it is common in Spanish to use "doler" in past tense? Coz I know in English you'd never say hurted so I'm wondering if its the same in Spanish.

For example, would this sentence be correct:

Cuando estaba jugando baloncesto y caí, me di cuenta que me dolí el tobillo.

Muchas gracias!

Welcome to SpanishDict. Please take a moment and complete your SD profile as it relates to language. Thanks. - rac1, Sep 9, 2015

Answer 1

You are not thinking straight my friend.. it is not that we don't use the past tense of the verb hurt in english .. what is is that the verb "to hurt" in english is an irregular verb in past tense .. (like the verb to cost, ..I would say it cost me 100 Indian Rupees and not it costed me 100 Indian Rupees) in English the verb "to hurt" has the same conjugatiion in past tense as it does in present (that doesn't mean that we are not using the past tense) .. so in spanish in my opinion it is as common using the past tense of "doler" as it is in english .. hehe .. if some action took place in the past, I would obviously have to use the past tense or past perfect tense (depending on the context) to describe the action else I would be grammatically incorrect ..

Look at this link for the conjugation of the verb "hurt" you will see that the past tense conjugation is highlighted in red color which indicates that it is irregular ..

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/hurt.html

Hope it helps.

Regards,

Jimmy.

Answer 2

The English verb 'hurt' does have past forms. However, its past participle and 'preterite' form are the same as its infinitive form (except for the third person singular). 'Put' is another English verb that acts similarly:

English Simple Present

I hurt

You hurt

He/she/it hurtS

English Preterite

I hurt

You hurt

He/she/it hurt (no s)

English Past Perfect

I have hurt

You have hurt

He/she/it has hurt

English Imperfect

I was hurting

You were hurting

He/she/it was hurting

Here's a link to the Spanish conjugation table:

Doler

I'm not sure, but I believe doler may be used reflexively, e.g. se me dolió la mano as opposed to dolí mi mano. I would use the preterite to refer to the event of sustaining injury, but the imperfect for the continuing pain.

Lastimar may also be relevant..