Thursday 21 July 2011

Is It Not Getting Too Late?

 
SCENARIO
Imagine you are talking about the time with a relative, a friend or a colleague.  Perhaps you are on an a night out in the town and you are discussing when to go home. It is quite late, but you might have said something which gave the impression that perhaps you don't realise how late it is. The other person wants to ask you if you don't think it is getting a little bit late. He/ she could choose to be less formal and ask you:
¿No crees que se está haciendo un poco tarde?

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
¿(Usted) no cree que se está haciendo un poco tarde?

 


OUR TIP
You DO NOT need be concerned about the degree of formality in the question you are asked. Whether the other person uses the more/ less formal question is irrelevant to your choice of answer. Your answer depends only on whether you want to say that you:
  • Think it is not late
  • Think it is late

Here are a couple of examples which deal with those two basic possibilities:
  • No, creo que todavía no es tarde (think it is not late)
  • Sí, creo que es un poco tarde (think it is late)

Now you should practice answering the question:
¿No crees que se está haciendo un poco tarde?

This is another Free online Spanish lesson from Love-Spanish.com. We conduct lessons online on this and many other topics using the latest video conferencing facilities. Online lessons are the ideal way to improve listening and speaking skills. For more details on our lessons online and how to book them, please visit:

© Copyright 2011 Love-Spanish.com. by JM González. All Rights Reserved

No comments: