Word
Mi amigo tiene sueño después de viajar.
Meaning
My friend is sleepy after traveling.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Breakdown of Mi amigo tiene sueño después de viajar.
mi
my
el amigo
the friend
después de
after
viajar
to travel
Questions & Answers about Mi amigo tiene sueño después de viajar.
Why does Spanish say tiene sueño instead of something like es soñoliento or está con sueño?
Tener sueño is the most common everyday way to say to be sleepy in Spanish.
It uses tener + noun, which is very common in Spanish for physical states:
- tener hambre = to be hungry
- tener sed = to be thirsty
- tener sueño = to be sleepy
So even though English uses to be, Spanish often uses to have in these expressions.
- es soñoliento means he is sleepy by nature or he tends to be sleepy, which sounds more like a personality/characteristic.
- está con sueño is understandable in some regions, but tiene sueño is much more standard and common.
What does sueño mean here? Doesn’t it also mean dream?
- sleepiness / sleep
- dream
The meaning depends on context.
In tiene sueño, it means sleepiness or feeling sleepy.
Examples:
- Tengo sueño. = I’m sleepy.
- Tuve un sueño extraño. = I had a strange dream.
So the phrase tener sueño is a fixed expression, and in that expression sueño does not mean dream.
Why is there no article in tiene sueño? Why not tiene un sueño or tiene el sueño?