dói-me/me dói + Noun

The Doer Construction is the most natural way to report physical sensations of pain. It follows a specific logic:

1. A Unipersonal Verb: In the context of physical pain, doer is used as a unipersonal verb. This means it is used in the 3rd person (singular or plural). You do not conjugate it to match yourself. In fact, traditional Portuguese grammars classify doer as a defective verb, meaning it lacks all 1st and 2nd person forms because body parts (or other things causing pain) are the subjects. This exact same 3rd-person pattern is also used metaphorically for emotional pain (e.g., A verdade dói - The truth hurts, or Dói-me o coração - My heart aches).

2. The Subject: The body part is usually the grammatical subject. The verb must agree with it:

• Singular: A perna dói (The leg hurts).
• Plural: As pernas doem (The legs hurt).
• Note: 'Back' is as costas (plural), so you must say doem-me as costas.

Additionally, the cause of the pain can also be the subject (e.g., A injeção doeu - The injection hurt, or A ferida dói-me - The wound hurts me).

3. The Person (Indirect Object): The person feeling pain is usually indicated by an indirect object pronoun. Literally, this translates to 'The [body part] hurts to me'.

• European Portuguese (EP): Typically uses enclisis (pronoun after verb). Dói-me a cabeça. (My head hurts) or Dói-lhe a cabeça. (His/her head hurts).
• Brazilian Portuguese (BP): While proclisis (Me dói a cabeça) is less common in everyday speech compared to other constructions, it is still used colloquially and is not strictly literary. Using a possessive as the subject (Minha cabeça dói) is a standard, common, and natural way to express pain, alongside the widely used estar com dor de/no/na construction (e.g., Estou com dor de cabeça). Furthermore, spoken BP largely avoids the pronoun lhe. When talking about someone else's pain, Brazilians prefer possessives (e.g., A cabeça dele dói or A cabeça dela tá doendo) or the estar com construction (e.g., Ele está com dor de cabeça).

4. Articles vs. Possessives: While English says 'My head hurts,' Portuguese traditionally uses the definite article: Dói-me a cabeça. However, in colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, speakers often mix the possessive with the pronoun for emphasis (e.g., Minha cabeça tá me doendo).

5. Alternative Constructions:

• Estar com dor de / dor em: A core alternative is using estar com dor. Use de for standard, internal aches that act like compound nouns (e.g., Estou com dor de cabeça - I have a headache, or dor de dente - toothache). Use the preposition em combined with an article for localized pain in specific external body parts or joints (e.g., dor nas costas - backache, or dor no joelho - knee pain). Note: The word dor can remain singular even if the body part is plural (e.g., dor nas costas is just as correct and common as dores nas costas).
• Continuous forms: To say something is hurting right now, EP uses estar a doer (e.g., Está-me a doer a cabeça), while BP uses the gerund (e.g., Minha cabeça está doendo).
• Doer em + body part: In colloquial Brazilian Portuguese, it is very common to use doer with the preposition em (in/on) followed by the body part (e.g., Tá doendo no meu pé - My foot is hurting, or Dói na minha perna - My leg hurts).

6. Past Tense: The same rules apply in the past. Use the Pretérito Perfeito -ER Verbs for a sudden or completed pain (Doeu-me a cabeça - My head hurt) and the Pretérito Imperfeito -ER/-IR Verbs for ongoing pain (As pernas doíam-lhe - His legs were hurting).

7. Experiencing Pain vs. Inflicting Injury: In English, 'hurt' is used both for feeling pain ('My leg hurts') and causing injury ('I hurt my leg'). In Portuguese, doer is strictly for experiencing pain. To say you injured yourself, use machucar (BP) or magoar (EP) (e.g., Eu machuquei a perna - I hurt my leg).