"tengo muy hambre/sueño" or "tengo mucho hambre/sueño"

Question

Using a couple of online translations I get "tengo mucho hambre/sueño" but, as I understand muy = very therefore "tengo muy hambre/sueño" is more correct.

Could someone let me know if I'm right... or not?

Thanks

Answer 1

No, very is used differently than in English. Tengo mucho hambre = I have much hunger. Estoy muy hambriente = I'm very hungry. Tengo = I have + (much). Estoy = I am + (very). Hope this helps.

Answer 2

To be more specific - hambre is feminine noun, so:

Tengo mucha hambre.

Tengo mucho sueño.

Ah yes! Hambre is one of those feminine nouns that uses ‘el’, but still needs feminine adjectives, etc. Thanks for the reminder Behemoth. :) - chaparrito, OCT 26, 2009

cool, i didn't know that. - Chavag, OCT 26, 2009

Answer 3

Remember also Pedro, that hambre is a noun. That's another reason why you wouldn't put muy with hambre. In English you would never have very things, you would have much/many things.

And even though the direct translation of "Tengo mucho hambre" is "I have much hunger" (which we wouldn't really ever say in an English conversation), part of learning a foreign language is learning to think differently.