Spanish body parts: la cabeza, las manos and me duele

The first body words to learn are la cabeza (head), el brazo (arm), la mano (hand) and el pie (foot). With these you can already point, describe yourself, and say what hurts at the doctor.

Two things work differently from English. First, when it is obvious whose body you mean, Spanish uses the article el/la/los/las, not “my”: you say me lavo las manos, literally “I wash myself the hands”. Second, to say something hurts you use the verb doler like gustar — me duele la cabeza is “my head hurts”. The list below has the everyday parts with their gender and audio, and the sections explain the article and doler.

The main body parts

The parts you will use most are la cabeza (head), el brazo (arm), la pierna (leg), el pie (foot), la mano (hand) and el dedo (finger). On the face you have la boca (mouth), la nariz (nose) and la oreja (ear).

Two genders surprise English speakers. Mano ends in -o but is feminine, so it is la mano, not el mano. Pie is masculine, el pie, and nariz is feminine, la nariz.

Tengo una mano grande y un pie pequeño.
I have a big hand and a small foot.

Su nariz es larga y sus orejas son pequeñas.
His nose is long and his ears are small.

Levanto el brazo y muevo los dedos.
I raise my arm and move my fingers.

Use the article, not “my”

When the owner of the body part is clear from the sentence, Spanish prefers el/la/los/las over a possessive. Where English says “my hands”, Spanish says las manos and lets the reflexive pronoun (me) show who it is. This is the same el/la choice you sort out with el and la, just applied to the body.

Me lavo las manos antes de comer.
I wash my hands before eating.

Levanta la mano si tienes una pregunta.
Raise your hand if you have a question.

Me duele la cabeza.
My head hurts.

Saying mis manos or tu mano here sounds unnatural — the me and the context already make the owner obvious, so the article is enough.

Saying it hurts: me duele

To say a body part hurts, use doler with an indirect object pronoun (me, te, le…). The verb matches the body part, not the person: use me duele with a single part and me duelen with a plural one.

Me duele la cabeza.
My head hurts.

Me duelen los pies.
My feet hurt.

¿Te duele el brazo?
Does your arm hurt?

Change the pronoun for someone else: le duele la mano (his/her hand hurts), nos duelen las piernas (our legs hurt). The body part stays with its article, exactly as above.

Common mistakes

Using a possessive with body parts

When the owner is obvious, drop the possessive and use the article.

Me lavo mis manos. → Me lavo las manos.
I wash my hands. The reflexive me already shows they are yours.

Treating la mano as masculine

Mano ends in -o but is feminine, so it takes la.

el mano → la mano
the hand. Gender comes from the noun, not the ending here.

Using the wrong number with doler

Doler agrees with the body part, so a plural part needs duelen.

Me duele los pies. → Me duelen los pies.
My feet hurt. Two feet means plural duelen, not singular duele.

In Fluera you meet each body part inside a short sentence, hear how it sounds, and build phrases like me lavo las manos or me duele la cabeza, so the article and doler become a habit instead of a rule you recite. Try it when you practice Spanish and turn these words into things you can actually say at the doctor.

Practice