doler means: to hurt
Click to see all conjugation charts of doler in every tense

In this Spanish conjugation lesson we will see how to conjugate the verb doler in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. It means we will see step by step how to create and translate forms of each grammatical person.

This lesson is specifically about the doler verb conjugation. For a general overview of all the Simple Tenses conjugation check our Simple Tenses Conjugation Chart.

You may also see the Video Presentation on how to conjugate verbs in Presente. It’s embedded below, but using the above link you will get more detailed information on conjugation in this tense and explanation of special cases and exceptions.

How to translate Presente to English

Notice that the English phrases provided below next to each conjugation are not direct translations from Spanish to English. They are usually the closest general equivalents. The example differences are:

• In Spanish conjugation, there is the form usted in the third person singular. But this person does not translate to the English third person singular. It translates to the so called formal you and uses the inflected form which is most often represented as he/she/it in English conjugation charts.
• Similar situation happens in the third person plural, where ustedes translates to the English plural formal you but uses the form which corresponds to the they form in English.
• Tenses are used differently in Spanish and English, so the actual translation should always take into account the context and focus on translating the meaning, not just words.
• In both languages each verb may have multiple meanings and not every meaning translates directly to the other language. Here also, the context and focusing on the particular meaning helps to create the most accurate translation.

The Spanish Presente de Indicativo tense translates to one of the following:

• The English Present tense, for example:
  vosotras doléis

  (feminine, plural) you hurt
• The English Present Progressive (also called Present Continuous) tense, for instance:
  hoy ellas duelen

  (feminine) they are hurting today
  
  Notice though, that the Spanish equivalent of the Present Progressive also exists and is in common use – that’s Presente Progresivo (a.k.a. Presente Continuo).

Note the timeline

The ability to properly locate the desired position on the timeline is an important skill for proper choice of tenses. So note the timeline in our lessons and visualize it while speaking, listening, writing and reading. After some practice you’ll be capable of selecting the right tense to use much easier.

Step by step instructions

Presente belongs to the simple tenses group, which means that all of the conjugated forms are one word long. There are also compound (compuesto) tenses in the Spanish language, where each inflected form consists of two words. The verb doler has an irregular conjugation in the Presente tense of the Indicativo mood. The first person singular has an irregular stem in this tense.

This verb belongs to the group which gets a change of the last o in the stem into an ue.

It’s convenient to think about this change as happening only in Presente de Indicativo, persons 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd singular and 3^rd plural, and whatever it influences later on (like the Imperativo) it never gets beyond the above mentioned persons.

And why does this change influence the other tenses? Simply because their forms are created based on the 3^rd person singular of Presente de Indicativo. So just remembering that this verb is affected by this change and that the change doesn’t propagate to other persons – you are able to properly create forms of three other tenses!

So in the regular stem dol change o to ue to get duel. But at least the ending is regular for this person. It is -o as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• yo duelo – I hurt

The second person singular also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained before we need to change o to ue in the regular stem dol to get duel. And again the ending is regular for this person. It is -es as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• tú dueles – you hurt

The third person singular also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained earlier we need to change o to ue in the regular stem dol to get duel. Once more the ending is regular for this person. It is -e as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• él duele – he hurts
• ella duele – she hurts
• usted duele – (formal) you hurt

The first person plural has a regular stem. So simply use dol- as the basis for this form. Add the regular ending -emos for this person to get dolemos:

• nosotros dolemos – we hurt
• nosotras dolemos – (feminine) we hurt

Like previously the second person plural has a regular stem. So you need to use dol- as the basis for this form. Again add the regular ending -éis for this person to get doléis:

• vosotros doléis – (plural) you hurt
• vosotras doléis – (feminine, plural) you hurt

The third person plural also has an irregular stem in this tense.

So as explained previously we need to change o to ue in the regular stem dol to get duel. Like previously the ending is regular for this person. It is -en as normally in the -er verb group. Add it to the stem to get:

• ellos duelen – they hurt
• ellas duelen – (feminine) they hurt
• ustedes duelen – (formal, plural) you hurt

That’s it! The conjugation is now finished. Put together, the conjugation chart looks like this:

yo	duelo	I hurt
tú	dueles	you hurt
él/ella/usted	duele	he/she/it hurts
nosotros/nosotras	dolemos	we hurt
vosotros/vosotras	doléis	you hurt
ellos/ellas/ustedes	duelen	they hurt

Click to see all conjugation charts of doler in every tense
But do not end your session yet – it is very important to repeat and practice the material in order to retain it. Check below for and suggestions.

Example sentences

Next Steps to Perfection To practice this conjugation and test your knowledge try this Conjugation Exercise or the Memory Game To see other conjugation lessons for this verb choose another tense: PretéritoImperfectoCondicionalFuturoPretérito Perfecto CompuestoPretérito PluscuamperfectoFuturo PerfectoCondicional PerfectoPretérito Perfecto Compuesto (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto A (subjuntivo)Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto B (subjuntivo)Futuro Perfecto (subjuntivo)  For exercises and examples related to doler visit our Exercise section To see conjugation charts in all tenses for doler visit the Conjugator To explore other learning materials visit the Study section

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