 Difference between ache, pain, and hurt from espressoenglish.net An ache is discomfort that continues for some time. It is usually associated with a specific part of the body, such as a headache, a stomach ache, a tooth ache, and an ear ache. After you exercise, the next day your muscles will probably ache. An ache is usually not extremely strong, so you can try to ignore it. Pain is usually stronger, more sudden, and more difficult to ignore. You would feel pain when you cut yourself or hit your head on something. If you exercise and you injure yourself, break a bone or tear a muscle, you would feel a sudden pain. We also have the expression aches and pains, which describes general and various physical discomforts. Your 90-year-old grandfather might complain about all the aches and pains he has at his age. The word hurt is a little different because it is usually used as an adjective or verb, not a noun. To describe an ache or a pain, you could say, my ankle hurts, meaning I have a pain or ache in my ankle, my neck hurts, or my shoulders hurt. Hurt is also used to mean injure. For example, don't play with that knife, you could hurt yourself. He was badly hurt in the car accident. Finally, all three of these words can be used to refer to emotional pain as well as physical pain. For example, my son is in prison, the situation is causing me a lot of heartache. Heartache is emotional anguish, deep sadness. It took her years to move past the pain of her divorce. In this sentence, pain refers to emotional injury, emotional discomfort. I was extremely hurt that he didn't invite me to his wedding. Hurt in this sentence means upset or sad. If you'd like to clear up your doubts about confusing words, check out my e-book, 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained. It has more than 200 pages and over 5 hours of audio to help you master these words. Visit espressoenglish.net, click on e-books, and look for 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained.