How bad does it hurt to sprain ankle?

A sprained ankle can hurt one person and not another.

It just depends on a few things. First, it can depend on how sensitive you are to pain. My brother broke his arm in 3 places and did not cry, and when I fell off my bike and scraped my knee I was crying.

There are 3 types of sprained ankles: grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3. If you get a grade 1 ankle, you typically will have a little pain, swelling, and tenderness. With grade 1, the ligament is stretched or the fibers of the ligaments are ripped a little. You can tolerate putting your weight on it. With grade 2, some of the fibers are torn but not all of them so there is a big increase in pain, swelling, and tenderness. You usually will have difficulty putting pressure on that ankle. Grade 3 is the worse. The ligament is torn, and you can't put weight on it without a lot of pain. There is a lot of swelling and tenderness. You will need to stay off it (though you should stay off of any sprained ankle).

Remember RICE (Rest (stay off of it), Ice (20-30min), Compression (Ace bandage), and Elevation (for first 48 hours)). A broken or fractured ankle/ foot can free the same as a sprained ankle (there are similar symptoms), so it can be quite painful to have a sprained ankle.