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I am new to the language I don't understand how Io ho fame= I am hungry instead of I have hunger
In other languages, hunger is a quality that you have rather than a state you are in. You "have the quality of hunger;" in that sense, you are right. But to translate that directly into English would be irrational because we don't talk like that.
I wrote I have hunger too, but got it wrong. Why is "I am hungry" not "Io sono fame"
2008
In English, we say "I am hungry", the adjective. In Italian, they say "Io ho fame (I have hunger)", the noun. Different languages say things differently. It's about translating it into how it's said in that language, not word-for-word substitutions. It just doesn't work that way.
You can say "(Io)Sono affamato/a" - I am hungry or "Ho fame- literally I have hunger. Both mean the same thing.
Ciao Rosie: "Io ho fame" literally means "I have hunger", but that is just not the way English speakers say it, so it is translated as "I am hungry".
It is exactly the same with Spanish. We do not say: Yo soy hambre/ yo estoy hambre; and that would be the direct or exact translation for: I am hungry.
It's the same in french, we say "La femme a faim“ for" La donna ha fame"
But in Spanish is correct to say both "Estoy hambriento (I'm hungry)" and "Tengo hambre (I have hunger)".
Exactly. You would say "estoy hambriento" only when you want to sound funny. It's kind of like saying "I'm feeling esurient". Technically not wrong but no one would normally use it. For a second language speaker to pull of an unusual phrase is difficult, it just sounds like they don't know the normal phrase. Unless they are like so so so clearly very very good in the second language - until then better to stick to the normal language use.
Also in dutch: 'Ik heb honger'. So basically english is the only one using the verb 'to be' instead of 'have'
- 2008
I have a friend who is a native Dutch speaker, and he says that you can say ik ben hongerig. It is grammatically correct and means something real, but it implies serious scarcity-level going hungry. When he was a child and tried to say "ik ben hongerig", his grandmother would remind him that she lived through the Great Depression and "wij waren hongerig" but "je hebt honger".
No it is not "I have hunger". Saying "Ik ben hongerig" is something that, although grammatically correct, is something you would never say.
Althought in spanish we can say: Yo estoy hambriento. Could there be a direct translation in italian for this phrase?
To put it simply, in Italian (and many other languages), it's, "I have hungry" (Io ho fame), not "I am hungry" (Io sono fame).
I love how Italian is so similar to English! Fame=hungry
Fame is similar to our word famine.
It is because English, Italian and many other European languages all derive from Latin.
- 2008
The Romance languages come from Latin: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian. English is actually a Germanic language, but it does take a lot of vocabulary from various Romance languages (most notably French).
don't forget that the Normans (who were Scandinavians who settled in Normandy) spoke French, as did the royalty & nobility for some time in England.
- 2008
@kered9:
I am pretty sure it is the other way around. Europe relied on England so heavily that their languages all devolved from English
As someone who has studied linguistics and the history of languages, as well as having a passing familiarity with the history of Europe, I have to say sorry, but that's completely wrong. Until a few hundred years ago, English was a low-status Germanic language. It is a mutt of a language because it's absorbed the vocabulary of all of its invaders. If other languages have English borrowings, those are much more recent and far, far fewer.
this is also why English is such a hard language for non english speakers (or english speakers, in my case) to learn.
El inglea no deriva del latin deriva del idioma anglosajon, los idiomas "romances" es decir derivados del latin son español, italiano, frances y portugues, es por esto que estos cuatro idiomas se parecen tanto, y nos es mas facil a los hispano hablantes aprenderlos
There are Latin roots in English as the Romans occupied the Britannia. As there are are French roots, German, Danish, etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English
I know, but the language itself doesn't derive fom Latin. French, Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Portuguese do.
That is because they share the same Latin root word "fames" meaning "I hunger"
This form is also used to say "I am thirsty", "I am afraid", etc.
(I am hungry. = Ho fame.) (I am thirsty. = Ho sete.) (I am afraid. = Ho paura.)
If anyone knows more examples, I will add them to the list. Thanks.
Can I shorten it to be "ho fame"? Will it still have the same meaning with I'm hungry?
This is just like in German, when they say "Ich habe Hunger". It literally means I have hunger, even though it is "I am hungry" ;)
- 470
It occurred to me that this makes a lot more sense when your native language isn't English, or when you speak other languages - like German, where you can also say "I have hunger". Takes a bit getting used to when you learn Italian from English, and English isn't your native language...
When you speak it, do you connect Io and ho like "i-o fame" or do you literally say "io ho fame"?
I have hunger=I am hungry. This is why I like languages, they express something in a way I have never thought of.
- 2008
In English we say "to be hungry" (adjective). In Italian, they say "to have hunger" (noun).
- 2008
It's how the verb conjugates.
AVERE (irregular)
io ho
tu hai
lui/lei ha
noi abbiamo
voi avete
loro hanno
How can Io ho be translated to I am. I have hunger was of course marked incorrect. Why wasn't it Sono fame????
- 2008
In English, we say "to be hungry". In Italian, they say "to have hunger".
Translation is about usage, not word-for-word substitution.
I get the translation is "I am hungry." But, why wouldn't "I have hunger" also be correct? Although not as common, people do say that, as well as "I have fatigue" and "I have energy" for "I am tired/fatigued" and "I am energized" respectively.
