Feel a painyeah, painful is strange! A painful injury. a painful memory. hitting my head on the doorframe was a painful reminder to be more. “ you could also say, “it’s been painful for four years.”“.
What Happened to Molly Noblitt?
So with the first example you need the “a.
Something that is painful is the cause of pain:
It has been a painful four years. Hurtful is more emotional while painful is usually more physical. Hurtful carries a strong connotation that the hurt is deliberate, or at least callous. Painful four years to me they are the same.
My arm is painful 変だね！ it's painful when you poke my arm with a needle! We say, it's painful, but you can't replace the pronoun it with the thing that's hurting. I’ve had four painful years. Painful can be emotional, but i have never seen hurtful used to denote physical betrayal is hurtful and painful, but a broken leg is just painful
A painful injury, a painful memory, a painful needle, but not a painful person or painful dog (to mean that they have pain).
Painful is much more appropriate than hurtful in your example sentence.
