Use the following phrases to talk about body pain.

My arm / leg hurts.

I’ve a nagging pain (= a pain that doesn’t go away) in the shoulder.

My wrist is sore.

I have pain below my right ribcage.

I sprained my ankle while I was playing football.

Notes

To sprain is to injure a joint by twisting violently so that there is pain and swelling. It is not the same as breaking a bone. When you break a bone, the injury is to the bone itself but when you sprain a body part you are hurting the tissue that connects the bone.

I can’t walk that well.

I can’t move that much because of the leg pains.

I fell off the stairs and broke my leg yesterday.

I can’t bend my knee that well.

My mother has arthritis so she can’t move her hands and legs well.

Legs

Use the following phrases to talk about pains and aches affecting the legs.

My legs are very sore because I went hiking yesterday.

I often get cramps on my calf.

My legs are all sore because I went jogging in the morning.

My shoes hurt me a lot.

He gave me a charley horse yesterday and my leg is still sore. (To give somebody a charley horse is to hit them in the thigh.)

I banged my little toe against the wall yesterday.

I banged my knee against the table and it still hurts.

He fell off the ladder and broke his knee.

I broke my leg last year while playing basketball.

I think I’ve sprained my ankle. It’s swollen.