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Doler is a Spanish verb which translates into English as “to hurt, ache”.
Below are all of the conjugations for doler in Spanish, in all three moods (indicative/indicativo, subjunctive/subjunctivo and imperative/imperativo) and all of the tenses, for each pronoun.
The vosotros pronoun is mainly used in mainland Spain, and is the informal second-person plural – it could be considered the Spanish version of “y’all”. It is rarely found in Latin America, where ustedes is used instead.
The vos form is used instead of tú in some Spanish speaking countries of South America, especially the Southern Cone (e.g. Argentina and Uruguay) and has a different conjugation.
| English Infinitive | to hurt, ache |
|---|---|
| Spanish Infinitive | doler |
The gerund (gerundio) is used with the continuous tenses, e.g. present continuous (está doliendo) and past continuous (estaba doliendo). The easiest way to think of it is the equivalent of english’s -ing form (e.g. hurting).
The past participle (participio) is used with perfect tense ‘haber’ verbs, e.g. he dolido and hubiera dolido. These are the equivalent of English’s ‘have’ (e.g. have hurt).
| Gerundio / Gerund | doliendo |
|---|---|
| Participio / Past Participle | dolido |
The basic form of speech, el indicativo is used for making statements, talking about facts, events and things that are certain and objective.
The present tense is as it sounds – it’s for talking about things that are currently going on, which are habitual, or which generally exist. In English, this would be “I hurt” or “they hurt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | duelo |
| Tú | dueles |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duele |
| Nosotros / as | dolemos |
| Vosotros / as | doléis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duelen |
| Vos | dolés |
Your simple past tense, e.g. “I hurt” or “she hurt” in English.
In Spanish, there are two past tenses where just one is used in English; the pretérite infefinido is typically used to refer to a concrete, specific moment in time.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dolí | I hurt |
| Tú | doliste | You hurt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dolió | He / she / you hurt |
| Nosotros / as | dolimos | We hurt |
| Vosotros / as | dolisteis | You hurt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolieron | They / you hurt |
| Vos | doliste | You hurt |
The pretérito imperfecto roughly translates as “I was hurting” or “she was hurting” in English, and is typically used to describe things and set a scene, talk about events without a specific timeframe, or talk about habitual events or states in the past.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dolía | I was hurting |
| Tú | dolías | You were hurting |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dolía | He was / she was / you were hurting |
| Nosotros / as | dolíamos | We were hurting |
| Vosotros / as | dolíais | You were hurting |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolían | They / you were hurting |
| Vos | dolías | You were hurting |
The perfect tense is for talking about things which happened in the past but are still related to the present or continue into the present.
In English, these use the auxiliary verbs ‘have’ and ‘has’ – i.e. “I have hurt” and “she has hurt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | he dolido | I have hurt |
| Tú | has dolido | You have hurt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | ha dolido | He has / she has / you have hurt |
| Nosotros / as | hemos dolido | We have hurt |
| Vosotros / as | habéis dolido | You have hurt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | han dolido | They / you have hurt |
| Vos | has dolido | You have hurt |
The conditional is used in place of the English modal verb “would”, i.e. “I would hurt” or “she would hurt”. It can be used to talk about hypothetical situations.
| Pronoun | Spanish | Englush |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | dolería | I would hurt |
| Tú | dolerías | You would hurt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dolería | He / she / you would hurt |
| Nosotros / as | doleríamos | We would hurt |
| Vosotros / as | doleríais | You would hurt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolerían | They / you would hurt |
| Vos | dolerías | You would hurt |
The future tense, simply put, replaces the English modal verb “will” – i.e. “I will hurt” or “they will hurt”.
It is more commonly used for making a hypothesis about the present. To talk about the future, Spanish speakers frequently use “ir + a + infinivo”, e.g. “van a doler” means “They are going to hurt”.
| Pronoun | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | doleré | I will hurt |
| Tú | dolerás | You will hurt |
| Él / Ella / Usted | dolerá | He / she / you will hurt |
| Nosotros / as | doleremos | We will hurt |
| Vosotros / as | doleréis | You will hurt |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolerán | They / you will hurt |
| Vos | dolerás | You will hurt |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | duela |
| Tú | duelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duela |
| Nosotros / as | dolamos |
| Vosotros / as | doláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duelan |
| Vos | duelas |
There are two ways to form the imperfect subjunctive.
The first option sees verbs ending in -era (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ara (for -ar verbs), while the second sees verbs ending in -ese (for -er and -ir verbs) and -ase (for -ar verbs).
There is no difference between these two forms, and Spanish speakers use them interchangeably.
| Pronoun | Spanish era/ara | Spanish ese/ase |
|---|---|---|
| Yo | doliera | doliese |
| Tú | dolieras | doliese |
| Él / Ella / Usted | doliera | doliese |
| Nosotros / as | doliéramos | doliésemos |
| Vosotros / as | dolierais | dolieseis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolieran | doliesen |
| Vos | dolieras | doliese |
The future subjunctive is no longer used in modern-day Spanish, apart from in literary and legal contexts, and there is no need to learn it.
It is formed the same as the past/imperfect subjunctive, but with -e endings instead of -a endings.
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | doliere |
| Tú | dolieres |
| Él / Ella / Usted | doliere |
| Nosotros / as | doliéremos |
| Vosotros / as | doliereis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | dolieren |
| Vos | dolieres |
Used for forming positive and negative commands, e.g. “hurt!” and “don’t hurt!”.
| Pronoun | Spanish Affirmative | Spanish Negative |
|---|---|---|
| Tú | duele | no duelas |
| Él / Ella / Usted | duela | no duela |
| Nosotros / as | dolamos | no dolamos |
| Vosotros / as | doled | no doláis |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | duelan | no duelan |
| Vos | dolé | no duelas |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | haya dolido |
| Tú | hayas dolido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | haya dolido |
| Nosotros / as | hayamos dolido |
| Vosotros / as | hayáis dolido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hayan dolido |
| Vos | hayas dolido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiera dolido / hubiese dolido |
| Tú | hubieras dolido / hubieses dolido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiera dolido / hubiese dolido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéramos dolido / hubiésemos dolido |
| Vosotros / as | hubierais dolido / hubieseis dolido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieran dolido / hubiesen dolido |
| Vos | hubieras dolido / hubieses dolido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | hubiere dolido |
| Tú | hubieres dolido |
| Él / Ella / Usted | hubiere dolido |
| Nosotros / as | hubiéremos dolido |
| Vosotros / as | hubiereis dolido |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | hubieren dolido |
| Vos | hubieres dolido |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | esté doliendo |
| Tú | estés doliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | esté doliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estemos doliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estéis doliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estén doliendo |
| Vos | estés doliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviera doliendo / estuviese doliendo |
| Tú | estuvieras doliendo / estuvieses doliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviera doliendo / estuviese doliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéramos doliendo / estuviésamos doliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuvierais doliendo / estuvieseis doliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviera doliendo / estuviese doliendo |
| Vos | estuvieras doliendo / estuvieses doliendo |
| Pronoun | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Yo | estuviere doliendo |
| Tú | estuvieres doliendo |
| Él / Ella / Usted | estuviere doliendo |
| Nosotros / as | estuviéremos doliendo |
| Vosotros / as | estuviereis doliendo |
| Ellos / Ellas / Ustedes | estuviere doliendo |
| Vos | estuvieres doliendo |
Voseo is the practice of using ‘vos’ instead of ‘tú’ as the second-person singular pronoun, and is common throughout much of South America.
There are various versions of ‘voseo’ used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The conjugations for the most common type – used throughout Argentina, parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguya and Uruguay are below.
The present indicative (presente de indicativo) and affirmative imperative (imperativo) have different conjugations from the tú form, while all other tenses generally use the tú form.
| Tense | Vos Conjugation |
|---|---|
| Present Indicative Presente de Indicativo | Vos dolés |
| Simle Past / Preterite Preterite de Indicativo | Vos doliste |
| Imperfect Past Preterite Imperfecto de Indicativo | Vos dolías |
| Conditional Condicional | Vos dolerías |
| Future Futuro de Indicativo | Vos dolerás |
| Present Subjunctive Presente de Subjunctivo | Vos duelas |
| Imperfect Subjunctive Imperfecto de Subjunctivo | Vos dolieras / Vos doliese |
| Affirmative Imperative Imperativo | Vos dolé |
| Negative Imperative Imperativo Negativo | Vos no duelas |