माँ को भूख लगी है, इसलिए मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगी।

In Hindi, many bodily sensations and feelings are expressed with the experiencer marked by को.

So Hindi often says things like:

• मुझे भूख लगी है = I am hungry
• उसे ठंड लग रही है = He/She feels cold
• बच्चे को नींद आ रही है = The child is feeling sleepy

So माँ को भूख लगी है literally works more like Hunger has come to Mother, but the natural English meaning is simply Mother is hungry.

• भूख = hunger
• लगना = to attach, to be felt, to occur in certain expressions
• लगी है = has occurred / is felt

So भूख लगी है literally means something like hunger has been felt or hunger has come on, but in normal English you just say is hungry.

This is a very common Hindi expression.

Because लगी agrees with भूख, and भूख is a feminine singular noun in Hindi.

So:

• भूख लगी है
• प्यास लगी है

Both भूख and प्यास are feminine, so the form is लगी.

It does not agree with माँ here. The key noun controlling agreement is भूख.

Because they do different jobs:

• लगी gives the main idea of the expression
• है is the present-tense auxiliary

So भूख लगी है is the normal present-time form.

Compare:

• भूख लगी है = is hungry / has become hungry
• भूख लगी थी = was hungry / had become hungry

Without है, the sentence would sound incomplete in standard Hindi.

Yes. माँ भूखी है is also correct and means Mother is hungry.

The difference is roughly:

• माँ भूखी है = Mother is hungry
• माँ को भूख लगी है = Mother feels hungry / Mother has gotten hungry

In everyday speech, भूख लगी है is extremely common when talking about the feeling of hunger right now.

इसलिए means therefore, so, or that’s why.

It connects the cause and the result:

• माँ को भूख लगी है = Mother is hungry
• इसलिए मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगी = so I will cook dinner

So the whole sentence has a clear cause-and-effect structure.

रात का खाना literally means the food/meal of the night, which is how Hindi commonly says dinner.

Breakdown:

• रात = night
• का = of
• खाना = food / meal

A very important point: का agrees with खाना, not with रात.

Since खाना is masculine singular, the form is का.

Compare:

• रात का खाना = dinner
• सुबह का नाश्ता = breakfast
• दोपहर का खाना = lunch

Here, खाना is a noun, meaning food or meal.

That can be confusing, because खाना is also the infinitive verb to eat.

In this sentence:

• रात का खाना = dinner / the evening meal
• पकाऊँगी = will cook

So the actual verb of the sentence is पकाऊँगी, not खाना.

पकाऊँगी comes from the verb पकाना, which means to cook.

Here it is in the future tense and matches a female speaker:

• मैं ... पकाऊँगी = I will cook (said by a woman/girl)

So this ending tells you two things:

• it is future
• the speaker is feminine

Then the verb changes:

• मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगी = I will cook dinner (female speaker)
• मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगा = I will cook dinner (male speaker)

Hindi verbs often show the gender of the speaker in the first person.

Yes, absolutely. That is very natural.

• पकाना = to cook
• बनाना = to make / prepare

In everyday Hindi, many speakers very often say खाना बनाना for to cook food / make a meal.

So both work:

• मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगी
• मैं रात ka खाना बनाऊँगी

The second one may even sound a little more conversational in many situations.

Yes, Hindi word order is flexible, although the original sentence is very natural and neutral.

Original:

• माँ को भूख लगी है, इसलिए मैं रात का खाना पकाऊँगी।

You could also say:

• माँ को भूख लगी है, इसलिए रात का खाना मैं पकाऊँगी।

That version puts extra emphasis on मैं.

So word order can shift for emphasis, but the original is a very standard way to say it.

Hindi usually does not use articles the way English does.

So Hindi can simply say:

• माँ
• भूख
• रात का खाना

and the listener understands from context whether English would need a, the, or no article at all.

That is why रात का खाना can naturally correspond to dinner, the dinner, or the evening meal, depending on context.