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Questions & Answers about Ich bin hungrig.
Wait, I thought you had to say "I have hunger" in German. Is Ich bin hungrig correct?
Both are correct! Ich habe Hunger (literally "I have hunger") is the most common and natural way to say it in everyday German. However, Ich bin hungrig (I am hungry) is also perfectly correct. Since this lesson focuses on sein (to be) and haben (to have), this is a great example of how you can express the same feeling with either verb depending on whether you use the noun (Hunger) or the adjective (hungrig).
Since this lesson is about plural forms, how would I change this to say "We are hungry"?
To say "we", you change ich to wir, and the verb bin changes to its plural form sind. So, "We are hungry" is Wir sind hungrig. If you prefer using the "to have" version, you would use the plural of haben, which is simply haben: Wir haben Hunger.
Is hungrig related to the English word "hungry"?
Yes! English and German belong to the same language family. The German ending -ig often matches the English ending "-y" used to turn nouns into adjectives. Just like the noun "hunger" becomes "hungry" in English, the German noun Hunger becomes hungrig.
How do I pronounce the -ig at the end of hungrig?
In standard German, an -ig at the very end of a word is pronounced like the soft "ch" in ich (a soft hissing sound, similar to the "h" in the English word "huge"). However, in southern Germany and Austria, you will often hear it pronounced with a hard "k" or "g" sound. Both are perfectly fine and will be understood everywhere!