Questions & Answers about Ela diz que tem fome.
Why does the Portuguese sentence use tem (has) instead of a word for 'is'?
Why is que included here when the English translation is just 'She says she is hungry'?
In English, we often drop the word 'that' in sentences like 'She says [that] she is hungry'. In Portuguese, the connecting word que (that) is completely mandatory. You cannot leave it out to connect these two thoughts.
Why doesn't it say Ela diz que ela tem fome to translate both uses of 'she'?
Because it is already clear from the first part of the sentence who is being talked about. In Portuguese, it is very common to drop the subject pronoun (like ela) when the context makes it obvious, so repeating it would sound unnatural and repetitive.
Is diz a regular verb?
No, diz comes from the irregular verb dizer (to say or tell). It is in the present tense for 'he/she/it'. Since it is highly irregular but extremely common, its forms just need to be memorized.