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- Topic: German >
- "Ich habe Hunger!"
31 Comments
It's unnatural English. Sometimes you cannot translate word-for-word and keep it sounding natural. In these situations you should reword it.
Just because it isn't normally used doesn't make it wrong though. I have hunger is actually correct English and some people use direct translation to help them remember things more easily so I think it should be accepted.
Correct. Some people do say, "I have hunger," in English. There is nothing wrong with this, and it should be accepted.
No, direct translations should not be accepted if they are not correct phrases in English. People may use direct translations to help them remember, but it's still wrong. The point of Duolingo is to learn how to speak another language, not just to get questions right.
There is nothing incorrect about, "I have hunger," in English. You are correct that the point is to learn how to speak another language. This is why, "I am hungry," should be translated into, "Ich habe Hunger," in German. That is true. But it is not the same the other way around, as there are two ways to say it in English.
No native speaker says "I have hunger." It's like how in Spanish, you say how old you are my saying "I have 20 years". Yes, you COULD say that in English, and people would understand what you mean, but the finer point is that nobody says it like that.
If you said "I have hunger", people would get what you mean, but the point is nobody says that. It's not standard English, it's not even from any dialect I've ever heard of, therefore it's wrong.
Duolingo has had you translate word-for-word in the past, like "He is called {name}", instead of saying "His name is {name}"
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I understand but disagree. What about pain? Its a feeling like hunger or thirst. "I have pain in my knee." Vs "I am pained in my knee"
Agreed. "I have hunger" is a direct translation, and can be understood in English.
A lot of people here are saying that it is unnatural English. This is correct; I would never use the phrase at home. But I am not trying to learn English here, I am trying to kearn German! Direcy translations help me and others understand how sentences are constructed in the language. Otherwise, all im learning is how to translate one phrase into an english phrase, and that teaches me nothing.
To me (as a German) it sounds like very bad English, but I might be wrong. Have a look also here, for fun...
nice link :-) it does sound bad, but when i say "i have hunger" as a translation from "tengo hambre" in spanish it permits me to do so.
I am a native speaker. It is not bad English at all. IT is not the most common way to say it, sure, but it is not wrong.
In English it doesn't make full sense, the direct translation is not always the best, and in this case is not grammatically correct.
Hunger is a noun meaning "(the feeling of) hunger".
So Ich bin Hunger would mean that you are hunger.
Instead, Germans say Ich habe Hunger -- literally, "I have hunger", but in English, we say "I am hungry" instead.
We are learning German. So the most natural way to say any of these phrases, is most important in German, of course. When we are learning English, we can fine tune the nuances of that language usage. But Duolingo has to have a baseline and is constantly evolving with user feedback.
Isn't "Ich bin hungrig"??
That is correct German, but much less common than ich habe Hunger.
So, as far I undertood after reading this post, in german is natural say "Ich habe Hunger", meaning more literally "I have hunger" but at moment of translate to english you need to put it in more natural phrase like "i am hungry". i'm not native for english and in spanish "tengo hambre" is way more natural that "estoy hambriento", so the concept to "having hunger" was easier to think.
