2009 iMac wont boot or go recovery

Your two options then are to create a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer, but it requires access to another Qualifying Mac. A Qualifying Mac for macOS 10.11 El Capitan is most Macs from 2008 to 2015. You can confirm if a particular model Mac is compatible with macOS 10.11 by using this article which shows which versions of macOS are compatible with various Apple hardware. The Qualifying Mac can be running any OS at the time when creating the bootable installer.

https://eshop.macsales.com/guides/Mac_OS_X_Compatibility

Your other option is to boot from an OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade DVD which you should have if the iMac is/was running macOS 10.8.

Keep in mind most likely the hard drive has failed. You can attempt to run the Apple Hardware Test which should be on the second DVD which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory. You would need to boot this DVD by holding the "C" key immediately after the startup chime with the DVD already in the optical drive although the iMac may boot directly to the DVD without any intervention if the internal drive is not seen as bootable.

If the AHT doesn't show any issues, then you can try checking the health of the internal drive by booting a Linux USB stick which has a utility for checking the health of drives. I can provide instructions if you are interested, just let me know.

It this an Early, Mid, or Late 2009 model? If it is the Late-2009 model, then you may have access to Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R which could bypass a failing internal drive as long as macOS 10.12.6+ was installed on this iMac at some point in the past. You can get the exact model of your Mac by entering the system serial number here:

Check Your Service and Support Coverage - Apple Support

Hello!

Do you have the original Apple discs, by chance?

Jack