Meaning of 饿
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- hungry
- to starve (sb)
How to use 饿
饿 is the everyday word for hungry and usually comes after 很 (hěn) or with 了 (le) to show you have become hungry. It can also mean to make someone go hungry, as in 饿肚子 (è dùzi). Example: 我饿了。(Wǒ è le.) I'm hungry.
饿 (è) has the food radical 饣 on the left and 我 (wǒ, I or me) on the right. Picture yourself saying "I need food," which is exactly what you say when you are hungry.
Common mistake: Learners often write 饿 with the full 食 on the left. In simplified Chinese the left side is the compact 饣, and only the traditional form 餓 uses 食. Also, do not say 我是饿 (wǒ shì è). Use 我饿了 or 我很饿, because adjectives in Chinese do not take 是.
饿 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
饿 è · hungry · 10 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 饿.
Questions about 饿
What does 饿 mean?
饿 (è) means "hungry; to starve (sb)" and is used as a adjective and verb.
How do you write 饿?
饿 is made of 1 character: 饿 (10 strokes). That is 10 strokes in total.
Is 饿 an HSK word?
Yes. 饿 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
How is 饿 written in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, 饿 is written 餓.
What is the difference between 饿 and 饥饿?
饿 (è) is the casual, spoken word you use about yourself, like 我饿了. 饥饿 (jī'è) is more formal and written. It is used for hunger as a condition, such as in news about famine.
Does 饿死了 really mean someone starved to death?
It can, but in daily speech 饿死了 (è sǐ le) usually just means "I'm starving" as an exaggeration. For example, 我快饿死了 (wǒ kuài è sǐ le) means "I'm about to die of hunger," said jokingly before a meal.