/avwaʁ‿yn fɛ̃ də lu/ lit. ‘to have a wolf’s hunger’
French idiom, everyday. To be extremely hungry.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Avoir une faim de loup
?
Everyday French that works with anyone, from kids at the dinner table to colleagues before lunch. You conjugate avoir: “j’ai une faim de loup”, “on avait une faim de loup en rentrant”. The “une” stays in every form, which is the part learners tend to drop.
Also said avoir une faim de chien
Avoir une faim de loup
in real sentences
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J’ai une faim de loup.
I’m as hungry as a bear.
Tatoeba, sentence by chtof, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Nous avons une faim de loup.
We’re as hungry as wolves.
Tatoeba, sentence by nimfeo, translation by CM, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Avoir une faim de loup
come from?
The wolf is in there because it has a reputation for eating anything it can catch. French Wiktionary traces the idea to “manger comme un loup” (to eat like a wolf), which Antoine Oudin recorded in his Curiositez françoises in 1640, and dates the modern wording to the late 19th century, quoting Jean Drault’s barracks comedy Le soldat Chapuzot (1889). The same page points out that Greek went bigger: boúlimos, “ox hunger”, is where the word bulimia comes from.
Mistakes learners make with Avoir une faim de loup
Dropping the article because plain hunger has none: “j’ai faim” is right, but “j’ai faim de loup” isn’t. The wolf version needs “une”: “j’ai une faim de loup”.
Other French idioms like Avoir une faim de loup
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