I was recently asked in one of my English language classes about these three little words. I thought it was a great question because they are rather confusing. The student asked me: When do I use them? In what context? Do they mean the same thing? Because they were such great questions, I thought that I'd share the answers with all of you.

So, let’s start with the basics. Yes, they are similar in meaning. They all describe a negative unpleasant feeling. These negative feelings could be physical or emotional.

Grammatically, they are quite interesting and this is where it can get confusing. Hurt is actually a verb, an adjective, and a noun in English. How amazing is that!? Pain is both a verb and a noun. Wow! Sore is an adjective, but it’s still an awesome English word.

The best way to get the feel of these English words is to see them in action. Below are some common expressions: :

Verbs:

• Hurt eg.
  • My knee hurts.
  • Did he hurt you?
  • Don’t hurt yourself!
  • Tell me where it hurts.
  • “Stick and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” (children say this all the time when they are being teased)
• Pain eg.
  • It pains me to see you so sad. (this means I am suffering emotionally to see you feeling badly)
  • It pained her to say goodbye.
  • It pained me to go out, but I did it for my friend. She really wanted me to go with her.

Adjective:

• Hurt eg.
  • I just saw you fall over. Are you hurt?
  • She was hurt by your joke.
  • They are so hurt that you didn’t go to their party.

• Sore eg.
  • I have a sore tooth.
  • My muscles are so sore after yesterday’s game.
  • I am sore all over!
  • I was sore after that massage!

Noun:

• Hurt eg.
  • The hurt of breaking up takes a while to get over.
  • You should avoid hurting people’s feelings
  • There is a lot of hurt in the community after this tragedy.

• Pain eg.
  • You are walking a bit strange. Are you in pain?
  • Call the doctor if you have chest pain.
  • I’m experiencing a sharp pain in my abdomen.

To read more examples of these words, you can check out my favourite dictionary by clicking here. The Cambridge dictionary is excellent because it gives you definitions, pronunciation (both US and British), and example sentences. I particularly like that it has example sentences as it is possible to know a definition of a word, but not be able to use the word. So, any dictionary that gives example sentences is a GREAT dictionary to use to learn a language.

Well, it pains me to say it, but this is the end of my blog on pain, hurt, and sore. I hope no-one is hurt by this. If you are, and you'd like to read some more on other confusing words in English, then click here  to read my blog on 'get'.

Have a great day!