What hurts? boleti

Level A2 · Unit 10: At the doctor · Lesson 1: The body, and what hurts

Slovenian says "the head hurts me". The body part is the subject, and the person is in the accusative (me, te, ga, jo, nas, vas, jih):

With a plural body part, use bolijo: Bolijo me noge. My legs hurt.

In the past, the participle agrees with the body part: Bolel me je zob. Bolela me je glava. Boleli so me zobje.

Watch out!

Boli me takes the accusative. You'll meet feelings that take the dative, like Slabo mi je (I feel sick), in the next lesson.

Tip for Slavic speakers

Russian speakers: "у меня болит голова" is simply boli me glava, with no "у меня".

Practise this in the free course

This explanation comes from Unit 10, Lesson 1 of Slovenim, a free Slovenian course with dialogues, audio and exercises that check your answers.