The form of the verb 'hurt' that refers to a previous painful experience is the past tense form, 'hurt'. When we talk about something that caused us pain in the past, we use the past tense to indicate that it happened before the present moment. For example, if I say "I hurt my ankle last week," the word 'hurt' is in the past tense form because I am referring to an experience that happened in the past.
Using the past tense form of 'hurt' also helps us to distinguish between the past and present experience of pain. If I say "my ankle hurts," I am using the present tense form of 'hurt' to describe a current experience of pain. But if I say "my ankle hurt yesterday," I am using the past tense form to indicate that the pain is no longer present.
It's worth noting that 'hurt' is an irregular verb, meaning that its past tense form does not follow the regular '-ed' rule of most verbs. Instead, the past tense form of 'hurt' remains the same as the present tense. However, the past participle form of 'hurt' (used in perfect tenses like "I have hurt my ankle") is 'hurt' as well.
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