Question 1

Why is nos used before devoramos? Doesn't the verb ending already tell us who is eating?

Accepted Answer

This is called the affective dative or dative of interest. While devoramos alone means 'we devoured', adding nos emphasizes the completeness of the action and the eaters' emotional involvement. It gives a feeling similar to 'we gobbled it all up' in English, showing that absolutely nothing was left behind.

Question 2

I thought physical feelings like hunger usually use the imperfect tense. Why does this sentence use the preterite tuvimos instead of teníamos?

Accepted Answer

You are right that background states usually take the imperfect (teníamos). However, using the preterite (tuvimos) here shifts the focus. It frames the hunger as a specific, bounded event directly tied to that single meal, emphasizing the sudden, intense reality of that hunger at the exact moment they sat down to eat.

Question 3

Why is the masculine article un used in un hambre if the noun hambre is feminine?

Accepted Answer

Even though hambre is feminine, it starts with a stressed 'a' sound. To avoid the awkward double 'a' sound of una hambre, Spanish uses un (and el) directly before it. The word remains feminine, which is why other modifiers still need to match the feminine gender, like in mucha hambre.

Question 4

Is bocado related to the word boca (mouth)?

Accepted Answer

Exactly! Boca means 'mouth', and a bocado literally translates to a 'mouthful' or a 'bite'. Combined with cada, the phrase cada bocado perfectly pairs with the affective dative nos to emphasize that they ate absolutely everything on their plates.

Nos devoramos cada bocado porque tuvimos un hambre voraz.

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