hambre

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Spanish

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish fambre, fanbre, famne (compare Ladino ambre), from Vulgar Latin *faminem (possibly the accusative of a variant nominative form *famen or *famis),[1] from Classical Latin famēs, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰH- (to disappear). Compare also Portuguese fome, Galician fame, French faim, dialectal Occitan hame, Italian fame, Sardinian fámine, famen, Romanian foame. Cognate with English famine, famish. Doublet of fame.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈambɾe/
  • Audio (Colombia):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ambɾe
  • Syllabification: ham‧bre

Noun

hambre f (plural hambres)

  1. hunger
    ¿Qué te parece si comemos ahorita? – No tengo mucha hambre.
    What do you think if we eat right now? – I'm not very hungry.
    Sí, me muero de hambre.
    Yes, I'm starving.
    (literally, “dying of hunger”)

Usage notes

  • Feminine nouns beginning with stressed /ˈa/ like hambre take the singular definite article el (otherwise reserved for masculine nouns) instead of the usual la: el hambre. This includes the contracted forms al and del (instead of a la and de la, respectively): al hambre, del hambre.
These nouns also usually take the indefinite article un that is otherwise used with masculine nouns (although the standard feminine form una is also permitted): un hambre or una hambre. The same is true with determiners algún/alguna and ningún/ninguna, as well as for numerals ending with 1 (e.g., veintiún/veintiuna).
However, if another word intervenes between the article and the noun, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (la, una etc.) must be used: la mejor hambre, una buena hambre.
  • If an adjective follows the noun, it must agree with the noun's gender regardless of the article used: el hambre única, un(a) hambre buena.
  • In the plural, the usual feminine singular articles and determiners (las, unas etc.) are always used.


Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1983–1991) “hambre”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos

Further reading