A breath that sounded so painful, Maria didn't know how he could stand to keep breathing.

Doing a wheelie on one's nose sounds painful - but not when it's done like this.

Oh, this sounds painful because they're 64 characters; right?

She coughed, and cleared her throat so violently it sounded painful.

But we do have accounts of his Wembley speech, which sound very painful.

His voice opens up in relief as it descends but has to do things that sound slightly painful to reach the top notes.

His breathing was ragged and sounded painful, and mine wasn't much better.

He promises to "stand on your side", which sounds painful.

Actually, it sounds painful, but I assume that's really good.

He closed his eyes, and swallowed so hard it sounded painful.