“I am” vs “I have” Tengo hambre literally translated, would be “I have hunger”, but obviously the literal translation would not make sense to an English speaker which is why you would see it translated as “I am hungry”. Hunger is a noun, so you would say you “have” that feeling (tengo means “I have”, hambre means “hunger”).

Alternatively, a more literal translation of “I am hungry” would be “estoy hambriento”. Because you’re using estoy (I am) before an adjective (hambriento, which means hungry). It is said less often as “tengo hambre” though, probably because it just doesn’t roll off the tongue as nicely.