Why is " feel very painful" wrong?

[rainbow402]

Wrong: I feel very painful in my right hand.
Correct: I feel great pain in my right hand...

Dear Teacher,

Why is " feel very painful" wrong? Thanks.

[David L.]

My right hand feels very painful.

It feels very painful when I touch it.

I have a very painful back/right hand/headache.

I feel a strong/severe/sharp/dull pain in my right hand

I am in great pain, physically and emotionally.

I feel great pain in my right hand...
This is 'stilted' and is not what a native speaker would say or write.

[rainbow402]

I feel a strong/severe/sharp/dull pain in my right hand

I am in great pain, physically and emotionally.

I feel great pain in my right hand...

David, thanks for your reply.

I am still in the dark about the proper usage of the word-pain.

be in great pain (right?)
feel great pain (wrong?)

[banderas]

Originally Posted by rainbow402

David, thanks for your reply.

I am still in the dark about the proper usage of the word-pain.

be in great pain (right?)
feel great pain (wrong?)

painful describes a noun from my experience
feel is a verb thought not a noun
hope it helps

my second thought is however that David mentions that my right hand feels painful... strange
natives help!

[rainbow402]

I feel great pain in my right hand...

I just don't understand why it is stilted. I am clear the usage of " painful" according to David's illustrations.

[apex2000]

Originally Posted by rainbow402

I just don't understand why it is stilted. I am clear the usage of " painful" according to David's illustrations.

If you say: I feel a great pain.......
this would be correct as pain is a noun.

You can be in great pain, and
You can feel a great pain.
My foot feels very painful.
The pain in my foot is extreme/very bad/awful/terrible......
My painful foot is hurting very badly.
There is a pain in my foot.
My foot is very painful.

1.My foot feels pain.
2.My foot feels painful.
in 1 there is a definite pain, but the 'a' has been omitted from 'pain', whereas in 2 there is a more generalised feeling of pain.

The differences are not easy to grasp. Speaking English, and particularly hearing these words spoken will definitely help.

Going back to the original quote: I feel very painful in my right hand. We do not say that because it is not 'I' that 'feels' the pain but 'my right hand' which does. So:
My right hand feels very painful.
I feel a (sharp) pain in my right hand.

Does this help? Come back if not.

[Anglika]

A lot of this is colloquial usages.

I feel great pain would be more likely to be found to express emotional pain than physical. It is just not a collocation generally used in relation to physical pain, though you could find it in literary writing.

I feel painful would be interpreted as meaning that you feel that you are being a nuisance [probably intentionally].

[David L.]

be in great pain (right?)

Yes
feel great pain (wrong?)
This is stilted because we would write/say:
I feel a pain all down my leg.
or
I feel a lot of pain when I....
or
There's pain in my ankle when I try to walk.

One way I've thought of where we use this phrasing is:
I feel great pain ((meaning emotional NOT physical pain) whenever I remember the loss of our first born child.
compare with one of the examples I gave:
I am in great pain.
This is either emotional pain, or telling the person about physical pain but not being specific about where the pain is.

[rainbow402]

Dear All,

Thanks a bunch for your great help.

There's pain in my ankle when I try to walk.

David, do you omit"a" in above sentence or not?

there is a pain in my ankle"<--- right?


Like Apex mentioned as below:

1.My foot feels pain.
2.My foot feels painful.
in 1 there is a definite pain, but the 'a' has been omitted from 'pain', whereas in 2 there is a more generalised feeling of pain.

[apex2000]

We do say 'there's pain in my.....' when we mean 'there's a/some/a lot of/a little pain in my....'. It is generalised speech when we are not intending to be precise.