Describe Your Symptoms in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to describe your symptoms in Spanish! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• ask about symptoms

• describe your symptoms

• state what hurts

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Nouns

Spanish	English
la boca	mouth
el corazón	heart
el cuerpo	body
el dedo	finger
el dolor	pain
el estómago	stomach
la fiebre	fever
la garganta	throat
la gripe	flu
la nariz	nose
el oído	ear
la oreja	ear
el resfriado	cold

examples
Me duele el oído. My ear hurts.
Tiene gripe. He has the flu.
¿Te duele el estómago? Does your stomach hurt?

Oído vs. Oreja

While both oído and oreja are translated into English as ear, oreja refers to the external part of the ear, whereas oído refers to the whole organ.

examples
Me duele el oído. My ear hurts.
Tengo orejas pequeñas. I have small ears.

Adjective

Spanish	English
malo	bad

examples
El dolor es muy malo. The pain is really bad.

Adverb

Spanish	English
poco	a little

examples
Le duele poco. It hurts him a little bit.

Poco is both an adjective and an adverb.

Verbs

In this skill, you learn the following verbs!

Doler

Doler(to hurt) is a stem-changing verb. That means that its "stem," do, changes to due in all forms except for the vos, nosotros/nosotras, and vosotros/vosotras forms.

Spanish	English	When It's Used	Example
me duele	it hurts	With a singular noun.	Me duele el pie.^^(My foot hurts.)
me duelen	they hurt	With a plural noun.	Me duelen los pies.^^(My feet hurt .)
te duele	it hurts or does it hurt	With a singular noun.	¿Te duele^^ el pie?(Does your foot hurt?)
te duelen	they hurt or do they hurt	With a plural noun.	¿Te duelen^^ los pies?(Do your feet hurt?)
le duele	it hurts or does it hurt	With a singular noun.	¿Le duele^^ el pie?(Does his/her foot hurt?)
le duelen	they hurt or do they hurt	With a plural noun.	¿Le duelen^^ los pies?(Do his/her feet hurt?)
les duele	it hurts or does it hurt	With a singular noun.	¿Les duele^^ el pie?(Does their foot hurt?)
les duelen	they hurt or do they hurt	With a plural noun.	¿Les duelen^^ los pies?(Do their feet hurt?)

English

me duele	it hurts
me duelen	they hurt
te duele	it hurts or does it hurt
te duelen	they hurt or do they hurt
le duele	it hurts or does it hurt
le duelen	they hurt or do they hurt
les duele	it hurts or does it hurt
les duelen	they hurt or do they hurt

When It's Used

me duele	With a singular noun.
me duelen	With a plural noun.
te duele	With a singular noun.
te duelen	With a plural noun.
le duele	With a singular noun.
le duelen	With a plural noun.
les duele	With a singular noun.
les duelen	With a plural noun.

Example

me duele	Me duele el pie.(My foot hurts.)
me duelen	Me duelen los pies.(My feet hurt .)
te duele	¿Te duele el pie?(Does your foot hurt?)
te duelen	¿Te duelen los pies?(Do your feet hurt?)
le duele	¿Le duele el pie?(Does his/her foot hurt?)
le duelen	¿Le duelen los pies?(Do his/her feet hurt?)
les duele	¿Les duele el pie?(Does their foot hurt?)
les duelen	¿Les duelen los pies?(Do their feet hurt?)

How Doler Works

With doler and verbs like it, the subject of the sentence is the thing that hurts, while the person who is experiencing the pain is expressed via an indirect object.

Spanish	Literal English Translation	Everyday English Translation
Me duele el oído.	My ear is hurting me.	My ear hurts.

• In the above Spanish sentence, el oído (ear) is the subject, so doler is conjugated in the third-person singular to match the singular word oído.

• The indirect object me is used to indicate who is experiencing the pain.

Esperar

Esperaris a regular -ar verb that means to wait.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	espero	I wait
tú	esperas	you wait	informal singular you
vos	esperás	you wait	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	espera	he, she waits
usted	espera	you wait	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	esperamos	we wait
vosotros, vosotras	esperáis	you wait	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	esperan	they wait
ustedes	esperan	you wait	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Phrases

Here are some of the phrases used in these lessons!

Spanish	English
Es urgente.	It's urgent.
Necesito un doctor.	I need a doctor.

Quiz Yourself!

Want more practice with the vocabulary you learned in these lessons? Click here!

Spanish Conversation

Fantastic! Let's put the grammar and vocab from above to the test in the following example of a conversation in Spanish.

Dra. Ramírez:

Hola, Hugo. ¿Cómo está?

Hello, Hugo. How are you?

Hugo:

No estoy bien, Dra. Ramírez. Tengo dolor de estómago desde el viernes.

I’m not well, Dr. Ramirez. I've had stomach pain since last Friday.

Dra. Ramírez:

¿Le duele mucho? ¿Le duele aquí?

Does it hurt a lot? Does it hurt here?

Hugo:

Sí. Me duele mucho. Y tengo fiebre.

Yes. It hurts a lot. And I have a fever.

Dra. Ramírez:

Tiene gripe, Hugo. Debe dormir mucho y beber mucha agua.

You have the flu, Hugo. You need to sleep a lot and drink a lot of water.

Hugo:

Gracias, Dra. Ramírez.

Thank you, Dr. Ramirez.

Want to learn more about how to describe your symptoms in Spanish? Check out the following articles!

• At the Doctor

• Responses to "¿Qué Pasa?"

• Spanish Flu