Living Language

Avere fame: an Italian way of feeling If you want to learn Italian in Italy, one of the first surprises is how Italians talk about their feelings and needs. Students at our Italian language school in Tuscany are often amused when they discover that in Italian you don’t “are hungry” — you “have hunger”: avere fame. At first, it sounds like a small grammatical detail. But this little difference opens a door into the Italian way of experiencing life. In Italian, hunger is something you have, not something you are. It’s seen as a concrete, physical feeling that comes and goes. You “have hunger” (ho fame), “have thirst” (ho sete), “have sleepiness” (ho sonno), “have cold” (ho freddo). These expressions show how closely the Italian language is connected to the