Being hungry and thirsty in Italian

By Sigrid Lee

Food, and eating and drinking are very important to all of us. But how to talk about this in Italian? There are different ways, but one of the basic things to know is that being hungry iand thirsty are most commonly expressed using the verb avere (to have) plus the noun la fame (the hunger) or the noun la sete (the thirst). We've provided the articles to know the gender, but the article is not used in this formula.

Io però ho fame.

But I'm hungry.

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Ho sete.

I'm thirsty.

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But in the next example, the article is used. Note that who is hungry is identified by an indirect object pronoun — mi or a me (to me) in this case.

M'è passata la fame.

I've lost my appetite [to me, the hunger has passed]

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Peppi', t'aspetto fuori, che m'è passata la sete a me.

Peppi', I'll wait outside, since I'm not thirsty anymore [to me the thirst has passed].

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So, instead of asking, "How hungry are you?" the question can become, "How much hunger do you have?"

C'avete fame? -Sì, altroché. Ma quanta? -Tanta.

Are you hungry? -Yes, absolutely. But how [hungry]? -Very.

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Sometimes, we might want to use an adjective, especially when we're very hungry. We can say affamato.

Tutto sommato retaggio di un'Italia che, fino a pochi decenni prima, era un'Italia tutto sommato affamata.

All in all, a heritage of an Italy, which until a few decades earlier, was a hungry Italy, all in all.

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We can also say, when we feel "desperate," Sto morendo di fame (I'm dying of hunger).

And to remove hunger, in other words, to feed someone, we can use the prefix S:

Diceva che non avevano abbastanza soldi, non potevano permettersi un'altra bocca da sfamare.

He would say that they didn't have enough money. They couldn't afford another mouth to feed.

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We can also "give someone something to eat," dare da mangiare.

Devo dare da mangiare a mia figlia.

I have to feed my daughter.

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Maybe this lesson has made you affamato. We hope that you can sfamarti. Thanks for reading. You can write to us a [email protected].