Learn French: Les garçons ont très soif. - The boys are very thirsty.

Les garçons ont très soif.

The boys are very thirsty.

Breakdown of Les garçons ont très soif.

Questions & Answers about Les garçons ont très soif.

Why does this sentence use ont (have) instead of a form of "to be"?

In English, we use "to be" to describe physical states like being hungry or thirsty. In French, you use the verb avoir (to have). You are literally saying "The boys have thirst."

What verb is ont?

Ont is the "they" form of the verb avoir (to have). It matches the plural subject Les garçons (The boys), which acts as ils (they).

If soif means "thirst" (a noun), why do we use très (very) instead of beaucoup (a lot)?

This is a tricky exception! Even though soif (thirst) and faim (hunger) are nouns, they act like adjectives in these expressions. Because of this, you always use très to say you are "very thirsty", rather than beaucoup.

Since there are multiple boys, shouldn't soif have an "s" at the end?

No, soif stays exactly the same. Because the literal meaning is "they have thirst", the word soif represents the general concept of thirst and doesn't become plural just because there are multiple boys.