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/ [ˈãm.bɾe]
- Rhymes: -ambɾe
- Syllabification: ham‧bre
Noun
hambre f (plural hambres)
- 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.