SAY IT BETTER IN ENGLISH | 10 MUST-KNOW Ways to Express You're Hungry Like a Native! 🍽️

Hi, there. This is Harry and welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  

If you're preparing for a proficiency  exam or for a job interview, or indeed,  

if you just want to improve your  basic conversational skills, well,  

you've come to the right place. We will help  you with grammar, pronunciation, use of English,  

use of phrasal verbs, other idiomatic expressions,  everything that you could possibly need to improve  

your English to feel that you're speaking natural  English, to feel that you can fit in so you don't

embarrass yourself or feel like  you might embarrass yourself

or feel shy in trying to use the English.  You know the drill by now. If you need some  

additional help, some additional words or  expressions, you just write to me and I'll  

be very happy to help you. Okay, so  this is an advanced English lesson,  

and we're looking at ways to describe hunger. Now,  we're going to look at it in a few different ways.

We going to look at it in terms of when you are a

little bit hungry. So that's a bit  more polite when you're very hungry.  

So you've got a bit of an appetite.  And when you are very, very hungry,  

so you're really starving. So different words  can describe different levels of hunger that you  

feel. And we've all been in those situations,  you know, we, we just want something quick.

We just want something filling or we  want as much food as can possibly get  

because we feel as if we haven't eaten  for days. So all these words advanced

expressions and ways to describe hunger.

So I've got ten in total. Let me go  through them with you. First one,  

very British this one. And it means when  you're you've got it, you're a little hungry,  

so you're not you're not starving.  Okay? You're a little hungry and say,  

I'm peckish. Okay. So somebody might say, would  you like something to eat? I'm a little peckish.

I don't. I don't want much. Just something  small. But I'm a little bit peckish. A  

peck is like what a hen or a bird does.  They peck at the food of the woodpecker.  

Yeah, in the name of the woodpecker. Peck.  So when you're feeling a little peckish,  

it's not a big, big meal that  you want. Just a little meal to

help you get over until you have your full dinner  or lunch, whatever it is that you're going to eat.

So I am peckish. I'm a little peckish.

Or a nibble. Yeah, I could have a nibble. And  a nibble again is something very small. If you

Pick up biscuits and you you bite little pieces  

from it. You nibble on the  biscuit. Or if you see a

squirrel or a mouse, they nibble  at the food. They don't take big,  

big chunks. That's just the way they  are. So they nibble. So if you said,  

Yeah, I could have a nibble, it means I could  have something small, not something huge.

So something quite small. But yeah,  it would be appetising and enjoyable,  

but it's not something big. We used to  have a a game with biscuits when we used  

to hold the biscuit and eat the outside  of the biscuit and then move your way in  

rather than taking big bites of the biscuit and  little nibbles. How many nibbles could you get?

Okay, so first one, I'm peckish. The second one,  

I could have a nibble. Okay. And the third  one? Yeah, I fancy a bite to eat. And again,  

it's a way of saying that politely that you'd like  something to eat, but not a big, big meal. Yeah,  

so would what do you want to do? You want to  go for coffee or do you fancy a bite to eat?

Yeah, I fancy a bite to eat. A cup  of coffee and a sandwich. Okay.

A cup of coffee and a biscuit or a cup  of coffee and a snack is another way of  

explaining it. Then these are polite ways  of saying that you are a little hungry,  

but not really, really hungry. Okay,

now if we are feeling very hungry, then  we might say I'm starving. Okay. Now the  

definition of starvation is a lot worse than that.

Somebody who has hasn't eaten for three or four  or five days, then they can be literally suffering  

from starvation. But when we say I'm starving, it  usually means that we've been doing some exercise,  

perhaps a workout in the gym, or we've been  working hard all day. We skipped our lunch,  

so when we get home in the evening, our partner  says, you know, Would you like something to eat?

here, I'm starving. I haven't eaten  all day. And that sounds as if you're  

about to die. But of course you're not. But  it's just the way you feel. I'm starving.

Another way of saying I'm starving is rhyming  slang now. If you don't understand the British  

English so well, rhyming slang come from a  particular area of London. The real Londoners,  

the East Londoners are called Cockneys, and they  have a certain language that they use called  

rhyming slang, where words rhyme together and they  have a very different meaning. So, for example,  

if they want to go up the stairs, they refer to  the apple and pears and it rhymes with stairs.

I'm just going to go up the apples and pears means  I'm going to go up the stairs. So when they're  

talking about being strong and they are starving,  as we'd like to pronounce it, starving, they say,  

I'm Hank. Marvin. Hank. Marvin. Now, Hank Marvin,  for those of you, are not at my age. He used to be

With a group called The Shadows. And the Shadows

were a very famous group,

English group, who used to back Cliff Richard and  Cliff Richard. He's still alive now. I think he's  

in his eighties, but he was a real one. The  first British pop stars of the 1950, 6070s  

eighties. He had so many, many hit records and  the backing group that he had called the Shadows.

So lots of his earlier records were Cliff  Richard and the Shadows. And one of the  

members of the group, The Shadows, was this  guy called Hank Marvin. So people from London  

now use this and this have used it for many  decades as part of their rhyming slang. I'm  

Hank. Marvin means I'm starving. I  really would like something to eat.

Okay. I'm not even sure of Hank. Marvin is  still alive today. Hopefully he is. But if  

you feel like a blast of the past, go onto  the internet and download some music from  

the shadows. They've got some real cult music  that you'll recognise in that era, some really  

classic guitar work. And Hank Marvin was a  guitarist and really, really a good guitarist.

And then if you listen to some of the  records of Cliff Richard in the Shadows,  

you'll understand who I'm talking about.  Okay, So to be Hank Marvin starving. Okay.  

But Hank Marvin is his name. Starving. But  we should pronounce it correctly. Starving.

And as always, if you like this particular  lesson, then please, please like the video.  

And if you can subscribe to the channel,  because it does, it really, really helps.

Number six, if we're really, really  hungry, somebody could say, yeah,  

I'm really hungry. I could eat a horse.

So hopefully they won't eat the  horse, but it means they've got

A really big appetite

And, you know, maybe been  training hard in the gym,  

playing a football match  or rugby match or whatever.

They're really hungry. So,  yeah, I could eat a horse.

Very simply, I'm famished. So when  somebody is famished, they're very,  

very hungry. I'm famished. I don't think  I've eaten since breakfast this morning.  

I'm famished. And if it's cold day.  Yeah. A nice bowl of hot soup followed  

by something else. Would just hit the  exact spot. I'm famished. I'm starving.

Another degree above being famished and  above being starving is I'm ravenous.  

Yeah. So that really explains how  hungry you are. Yeah. the kids,  

they were ravenous when they came home  from the couple of days away from.

home. They went on a school trip. I don't  know what they were doing. I don't think  

they got fed properly. But when they  came home, they emptied the fridge.

In minutes they were ravenous. So to be  ravenous means really, really hungry. Ravenous.

Or if your stomach starts to rumble  or growl, as we call it, say, yeah,  

my stomach has been rumbling for hours. I  could really do with a good meal. Rumbling  

or growling for hours. Yeah. So the rumbling  of the stomach or the growling of the stomach  

seems to suggest that my stomach is  empty and I really need to to fill it.

So a nice bowl of hot soup or a big plate  of potatoes and other vegetables is just  

what I want. So to it, to stop my stomach  rumbling or to stop my stomach from growling.

In the Irish English expressions, we hear  this phrase, My stomach thinks my throat  

has been cut. So it sounds very gruesome,  but it gives you the impression that your  

stomach has been empty for a long time and  you haven't eaten. And my stomach thinks  

that my throat has been cut. So as I said, a  little bit gruesome, but you get the picture.

And then the last one, number ten,

I'm dying for something to eat. I'm dying for  a burger. I've been thinking about a burger and  

chips all day. So you've got yourself into that  particular mood that you working hard and you say,  

I know I'm going to have to go home.  I'm going to have a burger and chips,  

a big double burger or a Big Mac and plenty of  French fries and ketchup on the side, whatever.

So I'm dying for a burger and  chips. Or if you haven't eaten  

a particular meal for a while, it doesn't  necessarily mean you haven't eaten at all,  

but you haven't eaten your favorite meal for a  while. I'm dying for a pizza. Yeah. I've been  

on a diet for several weeks and I've been  trying to stay off some of the fast food.

So I'm dying for a pizza. I'm dying for a  burger, I'm dying for a bowl of spaghetti,  

whatever. Whatever it might mean dying for means  I really, really can't wait. I really want that  

type of food. So I'm very, very hungry.  Or, you know, for that particular item.

Okay, so there are ten different  ways to say that I'm hungry.

Some referred to a little bit hungry, as we said,  

and peckish, some to being very hungry like I'm  starving. And then those that mean I'm really,  

really hungry, like I'm ravenous. Okay, so  let me get into you one more time quickly.

Number one, I'm peckish. Very British.  English. I'm peckish. Little hungry. I  

could have a nibble or I could have a  snack. I fancy a bite to eat. Something  

not so big. A bite to eat. I'm starving. I'm  starving. I haven't eaten all day. I'm Hank  

Marvin. As I said, this rhyming  cockney slang. I'm Hank Marvin.

I could eat a horse.

I could eat a horse. Hopefully not.  I could eat a horse. Of course,  

there are many countries in the world where  horse meat is really acceptable. And that's  

and that's what they grow. I could eat a  horse. I'm famished. Absolutely famished.  

I'm ravenous. Or I'm so hungry, I'm  ravenous. My stomach is growling,

my stomach is rumbling. And then finally, I'm  dying for dying for that burger and chips.

Okay, so ten individual ways in which you can say,  

I'm hungry. So to practice some of  those, practice them with your friends.

See do they feel the same way. Listen out for  what they say when they're talking about what  

they're going to eat. And you might pick  up on some of these expressions. And if  

you need some additional help, then please  write to me www.englishlessonviaskype.com  

and I'm really happy to help you with some  additional expressions and additional phrases.

The best way for you to understand them,  

the best way for you to remember them is to  write them down, try to use your own words,  

situations and that really, really will help  you. Okay, so this is how you're saying. Thanks  

for listening. Thanks for watching. As  always. Join me for the next lesson.