Breakdown of Le survivant a précisé qu'il avait très faim avant la tragédie.
il
he
très
very
avoir
to have
avoir faim
to be hungry
que
that (introducing a clause)
avant
before
le survivant
the survivor (m)
préciser
to specify
la tragédie
the tragedy
Questions & Answers about Le survivant a précisé qu'il avait très faim avant la tragédie.
How does the sequence of tenses work here since the reporting verb (a précisé) is in the past?
When you report someone's words using a past tense reporting verb, you usually have to backshift the tense of what they said (for example, present becomes imperfect). But if the original speaker already used the imperfect tense to describe a past state, like saying J'avais très faim, the tense does not change. The imperfect remains imperfect.
Could avait très faim be a backshift from the present tense instead?
Grammatically, yes. If someone says J'ai très faim (I am very hungry), it backshifts to avait très faim in reported speech. However, the context here (avant la tragédie) tells us he was describing a state that was already in the past. His exact words were almost certainly J'avais très faim, which remains unchanged.
Why do we use très with faim instead of beaucoup de, since faim is a noun?
Is préciser used exactly like 'to specify' in English?
It is very similar, but French speakers and journalists use préciser much more frequently than we use 'specify' in English. In news reports like this one, it often translates more naturally as 'pointed out', 'made clear', or 'added', showing that the survivor provided a specific detail to clarify the situation.
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