How to Use "Pain" and "Hurt" in English (60+ Example Sentences & Clear Explanation)
- Alex
- 5 hours ago
- 10 min read
Level: pre-advanced (B2) / advanced (C1)
Quick Reference
Pain and hurt are used to describe unpleasant physical or mental sensations, typically caused by an accident, an attack, a genetic condition, an environmental factor, or aging. Pain is usually used as a noun, and hurt is usually used as a verb.
Pain is something you experience. It is usually a noun. You can have pain, be in pain, or you can say that there is pain.
Pain is usually used as an uncountable noun, as in, "How much pain are you in?", but it can sometimes be used in a singular sense, as in, "I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder."
Pain can used as a verb, though this is a more old-fashioned or formal usage. For example, "I was pained to learn of his death."
Hurt is usually used as a verb, and pain is usually used as a noun.
Hurt can be a transitive verb, as in, "I hurt my foot," or as an intransitive verb, as in, "My foot hurts."
Hurt is typically used with get in passive sentences. For instance, "He got hurt during gym class."
Hurt can be used as an adjective to refer to not being well. For instance, "I think he is hurt. He's not getting up from the ground."
Hurt can be used as a noun. For example, "There is so much hurt in the world."
The adjective of hurt is hurtful, as in, "He said hurtful things in his speech," and the adjective of pain is painful, as in, "The death of my father was a painful experience."
A Painful Story
When I was a kid, I had a bike accident. I was riding fast down a paved hill when I lost control of my bike. I flew over the handlebars and tried to protect myself by landing on the street on my hands and knees. Of course, this didn't protect my hands and knees! When I looked at them, they had cuts and scratches on them, and one of my knees was bleeding. How do you think my hands and knees felt at that moment?
There are numerous ways to describe my physical condition at that time. Here are a few of them:
I was in pain.
I had hurt myself.
My hands and knees hurt.
I had pain in my hands and knees.
Don't worry. Everything turned out fine after my accident. I was only twenty minutes away from home, so I walked with my bike beside me, and when I got home, my mom helped me clean my injuries and put a large bandage on my knee.
Have you ever had an experience like this? If you have and you want to talk about it in English, you might need to know how to use the words pain and hurt.
How to Use "Pain" and "Hurt" in English
The words pain and hurt are a little tricky for some English learners because in numerous languages, pain and hurt have the same root word. For example, in German, schmerz is the noun for pain, and schmerzen is the verb for hurt or pain.
"Pain" vs. "Hurt": Which one is more commonly used as a verb?
In English, pain is usually a noun, and hurt is usually a verb. You can have pain or be in pain. You can hurt something, such as your hand, and something can hurt, as in the sentence, "My hand hurts." You can also hurt someone physically or emotionally. Finally, you can use pain as a verb, but this is more formal, as in, "I was pained when I learned of his death," and you can use hurt as a noun, but this is less common than using pain in this way.
Let's look at some common ways to use both words in greater detail. We'll start with pain.
Pain
As mentioned, pain is usually used as a noun, and it can refer to physical or emotional injuries or discomforts. It is something that is experienced from the inside, or seen from the outside. For example, you can tell someone, "I can see the pain in your eyes," meaning that you can see that the person is dealing with some kind of unwanted physical or emotional sensation. Here are some common uses.
You can have pain or feel pain. For instance:
"I have pain in my ankle."
"I've had pain in my wrist for three days."
"I feel a lot of pain around my lower back."
"I have some pain just above my left knee."
"She has been feeling pain in her right shoulder all day."
"He used to have pain in his neck, but it's okay now."
As you can see, you typically have pain in or around a particular area of your body. If you see a doctor because you are experiencing physical pain, they might ask, "Where do you feel pain?"
You can use the verb "to be" with "pain"
If a doctor asks you, "Where do you feel pain?", you can answer with, "There's some pain right here" or "It's right here," as you show them where you are experiencing pain. You can use "There is" to focus on the location of the pain. Here are some more examples:
"There's a lot of pain in my elbow."
"There's a bit of pain in my left ear."
"There's some pain in my right eye."
Notice that you can categorize the amount of pain you are experiencing: a lot of pain, a bit of pain, some pain, etc.
You can be in pain
This is one of the most common uses of the verb to be with pain. Take a look at the examples:
"She has been in pain for over a week."
"Are you in any pain?"
"My left knee has been in pain for four days now."
"I've never been in so much pain before."
"He's in a lot of pain right now."
When we use in pain, we typically talk about the person who is experiencing pain, but it's possible to talk about the specific part of the body that is experiencing pain as well.
Before we finish discussing the noun form of pain, we have to address one more thing.
Pain is usually used as an uncountable noun
Yes, you can say, "I have a pain in my elbow," or, "There's a pain in my big toe." It's grammatically correct and it's common. However, most of the time, pain is used as an uncountable noun. Here are some mixed examples:
"Where's the pain?"
"She has a weird pain in her left hip."
"How much pain are you in?"
"He's in a lot of pain."
"Are you in any pain?"
"On a scale from 1 to 10, how much pain are you in?"
Notice how the two questions about pain level use how much, and not how many. This is because how much is used with uncountable nouns.
Now that we understand how to use pain as a noun, let's look at its formal usage as a verb.
You can use pain as a verb, but it is formal
When you use pain as a verb, it sounds old-fashioned and formal. This does not mean you can't use it in this way. It just means that you will sound formal if you do. Also, when it's used as a verb, pain typically refers to emotional or psychological distress, not physical. Because of this, when you use pain as a verb, you must follow it with the person who is experiencing the emotional or psychological distress. Finally, the passive form, be pained, is commonly used in this case as well. Here are some examples of pain as a verb, in both the active and the passive:
"It pains me to see you like this."
"The judge's decision pained her family for years."
"What pains her most is that she could have prevented the accident."
"He was greatly pained by the news of his brother's death."
"She was pained by his constant criticism."
Once again, you can speak like this if you wish, but this usage of pain is much more common in literary contexts that use more formal language.
Now, let's move on to hurt.
Hurt
Hurt is usually used as a verb that refers to physical or emotional injuries or discomforts. The best part about hurt as a verb is that you don't have to remember any verb conjugations. The present, past, and past participle forms of hurt are hurt, hurt, and hurt. Easy, right? Once you learn this, you can start practicing the various usages of hurt.
Hurt can be used as a transitive verb
A transitive verb needs an object. Note the following examples of this usage:
"Ouch! You hurt me!"
"I hurt my hand when I was playing basketball."
"Careful. Don't hurt yourself."
"He hurt himself at work."
"She hurt her foot at the gym."
"Don't worry. He's a good dog. He won't hurt you."
In all of the cases above, hurt is followed by the object which received pain: me, my hand, yourself, himself, her foot, you. Remember that you can use hurt to talk about emotional distress as well. For instance, you can say, "You really hurt me when you lied," or "Words can hurt people."
Okay, so we know that hurt can be a transitive verb. What else?
Hurt can be used as an intransitive verb
This one is simple. An intransitive verb isn't followed by an object. In the case of hurt, just mention the subject that is in pain and follow it with hurt. Just remember to add an 's' for the third person present simple. Here are some examples:
"My arm hurts. Don't touch it!"
"She's not going to school because her stomach hurts."
"I didn't go to work yesterday because my ear hurt."
"Does your tooth still hurt?"
"Where does it hurt?"
"On a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it hurt?"
You can think of this usage as the equivalent of being in pain. For instance, you can say, "My arm hurts," or "My arm is in pain."
Next, let's look at passive sentences.
It is common to use "get hurt" for passive sentences
You can use be hurt for passives, but get hurt is more common in spoken English. For instance, you can say, "I was hurt during gym class," but it's more common to say, "I got hurt during gym class." When you use get hurt, you typically talk about the person who is in pain. It is possible to talk about the part of the body that is hurt, but it's more common to talk about the person. Here are some examples of this usage:
"She got hurt during tennis practice."
"Matt keeps getting hurt because he always picks the wrong women."
"They were in a car accident, but luckily, no one got hurt."
"Don't go out with him. You'll only get hurt."
"That fall looked pretty bad. Did you get hurt?" (You can also say, "Were you hurt?" in this case.)
This is a good time to remind you that pain and hurt are used for emotional pain, as well as physical pain. Did you notice the two sentences which referred to emotional pain? Go back and find them before you continue.
Hurt can be used as an adjective
You can use hurt to discuss a person's negative physical or emotional state. In this case, it's just an adjective. Think of it as the opposite of healthy, fine, well, or okay. Take a look at these examples:
"He's not getting up from the ground. Is he hurt?"
"I felt hurt because you didn't call me back."
"Hey, are you okay?" "No, I think I'm hurt. I can't move my leg."
"She's really hurt. You said some truly awful things to her."
"You should apologize to him. He seems hurt."
As you can see, you can be hurt in a physical or in an emotional sense. We just have one more usage that we need to review.
Hurt can be used as a noun
While hurt is usually used as a verb, it also has a noun form. It usually refers to emotional pain. This usage is easily understood by fluent English speakers, but it is not as common as the uses above. Here are some examples:
"There is too much hurt in the world."
"I've never experienced that level of hurt before."
"Your words have caused a lot of hurt."
"He tried to forgive his best friend, but the hurt remained."
"I wish I could remove your hurt."
In all of the examples above, pain is more common, though hurt is possible.
Now, let's talk about one more aspect of pain and hurt.
Adjective forms: "Painful" and "Hurtful"
If someone's words or actions cause you to feel physical or emotional pain, the effect is painful. If someone's words or actions cause you to feel emotional pain, the words or actions are hurtful. If this sounds confusing, don't worry. The examples should make things clear.
Painful (used for physical or emotional pain)
"I just had a painful conversation with my boss." (This means the conversation was very unpleasant for me, or for me and my boss together.)
"Giving birth is one of the most painful human experiences." (This means the experience of giving birth to a child involves a lot of pain.)
"Was the surgery painful?" (Meaning, "Did you feel any pain during the surgery?")
"That was a painful presentation." (This is a sarcastic comment which means, "I did not enjoy that presentation. It caused me to feel pain.")
Hurtful (typically used for emotional pain)
"You said some very hurtful things." (Meaning, "The things you said to me hurt me. Your words were unpleasant.")
"Why did you exclude me from the group? It was hurtful." (Meaning, "I felt hurt when you excluded me from the group. You hurt me.")
"Why did you spread those hurtful rumours about me?" (Meaning, "Why did you tell other people things that were not true about me? Your decision to do that really hurt me.")
"He made some hurtful remarks to his brother." (Meaning, the remarks hurt his brother.)
I hope this makes things clear and that you have a better understanding of how to use pain and hurt in English.
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