Questions & Answers about Är du hungrig eller törstig?
How does eller work in this sentence?
eller is the Swedish word for "or". It is a coordinating conjunction, which means it links two equal parts of a sentence. Here, it connects the two adjectives hungrig (hungry) and törstig (thirsty) without changing any word order.
Do I need to say "are you" again after eller?
No, you don't! Just like in English, when eller connects two words that share the same subject and verb (Är du), you can skip repeating them. Saying Är du hungrig eller är du törstig? is grammatically correct but sounds repetitive, so it's much more natural to just link the adjectives directly.
Why does the sentence start with the verb Är?
To make a yes/no question in Swedish, you swap the subject and the verb so the verb comes first. A regular statement is Du är hungrig (You are hungry), so the question becomes Är du hungrig? (Are you hungry?).
Would hungrig and törstig change if I were asking a group of people?
Yes! In this sentence, they are in their basic form because the pronoun du refers to one single person. If you were asking a group of people, you would use the plural pronoun ni and add an -a to the end of the adjectives: Är ni hungriga eller törstiga?