Saturday 10 December 2011

Tell Me, What Do You Think Needs To Be Done ?

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague who has a problem of some description. Maybe that problem affects you too. The other person is trying to find a solution/ breakthrough. He/ she wants to know what, in your opinion, needs to be done. Thus the other person decides to say to you: "tell me, what do you do you think needs to be done?". 

He/ she could choose to be less formal and say to you:
Dime, ¿qué crees que hay que hacer?


Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:
Dígame, ¿qué cree (usted) que hay que hacer?
  


OUR TIP

You DO NOT need be concerned about the degree of formality in what your relative/ friend/ colleague says to you. Whether the other person uses a more/ less formal register is irrelevant to your choice of reply.

Your answer depends only on what you want to say about what needs to be done. There are a variety of ways to reply. Maybe you want to say that you:
  • Don't believe anything can be done at this stage.
  • Believe that the best thing would be to do something at some point.

Here are a couple of examples which deal with those basic possibilities:
  • No creo que se pueda hacer nada ahora* (I don't believe anything could be done now)
  • Creo que lo mejor sería actuar ya (I believe the best thing would be to act right now).

Now you should practice replying to:
Dime, ¿qué crees que hay que hacer?

*Please see grammar below


Grammar-Subjunctive
Please note the use of subjunctive in expressions of belief, when using the Spanish verb 'creer', but only in negative statements, such as:
  • "I don't believe {someone will/ could/ should do something}"
  • "I don't believe {something will/ could/ should happen}"
  • "I don't believe {something will/ could/ should be done}"

In order to express this in Spanish, you could use:
  • "no creo que <subjuntivo>..." 

An example of this is the reply above: "no creo que se pueda hacer nada ahora".

Some other examples of expressions of this type in Spanish are:
  • No creo que vaya a acabar esta semana (I don't believe I will finish this week).
  • No creo que puedas acabar esta semana (I don't believe you could finish this week).
  • No creo que Pedro vaya a acabar esta semana (I don't believe Pedro will finish this week).
  • No creo que debamos acabar esta semana (I don't believe we should finish this week).
  • No creo que vayáis a acabar esta semana (I don't believe you-plural will finish this week).
  • No creo que puedan acabar esta semana (I don't believe they could finish this week).
  • No creo que vaya a llover esta semana (I don't believe it will rain this week).

Now you should practise this use of the subjunctive with some more sentences of your own




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1 comment:

Margaret M said...

YO creo que hay que hacer muchas cosas pero primero tenemos que pensar lo que se hace falta hacer primero.