Russian vocabulary: eating

 Do you eat a lot? Or maybe you become full after just a few bites? Today I'll show you how to describe yourself eating-wise in Russian.

Eating vocabulary:

food — еда

to eat — есть, кушать

hunger — голод

hungry — голодный

to become hungry — проголодаться

glutton — обжора

have a sweet tooth – быть сладкоежкой

sweet tooth — сладкоежка (literally: the one who eats sweets)

gourmet – лакомка, гурман

Idioms:

голодный как собака — really hungry (literally: hungry like a dog)

есть как цыплёнок — to eat very little, to barely touch food (literally: to eat like a chicken)

Путь к сердцу мужчины лежит через желудок. — The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Sentences:

Николай проголодался и съел бутерброд. — Nikolay got hungry and ate a bread and butter.

Вика такая сладкоежка! — Vika is a such a sweet tooth!

Андрей такой сладкоежка! Он съел все конфеты. — Andrey is such a sweet tooth! He ate all candies.

У меня от голода в животе урчит. — My tummy rumbles from hunger.

Пётр Иванович — гурман. Он любит изысканные блюда. — Pyotr Ivanovich is a gourmet. He likes fancy meals.

На меня напал жор. — I had the blind munchies (=I was really hungry/ eating everything in sight)

Bonus:

So now you know the word for a glutton — обжора. Its root 'жор' is actually a word on its own (see the example earlier). There are a few more words with this root where 'o' disappears:

жрать, пожрать — devour, gobble, gorge

нажраться — to drink way too much alcohol, to get really drunk

These three words are very informal and sometimes a bit rude, especially the last one. I mostly heard young people using them when talking to friends. More polite synonym for жрать is жадно есть, literally meaning 'to eat greedily'.

As you can see пожрать and нажраться are pretty similar, so be sure to remember which one means what. Once in university my friend and I were talking about our plans for that day. I was really hungry so I said I was going to the dining hall. My friend's plan was to meet with his friends and drink beer, so he said “See what's different with us? You're going to gobble (пожрать) and I'm going to get drunk (нажраться).” :-)

That's it for today. So tell me, are you a glutton or do you eat like a chicken? :-)