Expressing concern with "kongpa"

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Chinese-grammar-wiki-恐怕.jpg

恐怕 (kǒngpà) can be used to express "I'm afraid that," or "I'm concerned that," or even "I'm worried that," followed by some sort of reason. It doesn't need to be something you're literally afraid of; it may be that you're just trying to soften the blow of some bad news, as in, "I'm afraid that I'm too busy washing my hair tomorrow night to come over and see the 2000 pictures of your trip to ComicCon."

Structure

"恐怕" comes at the beginning of the sentence. The meaning is similar to "perhaps" or "probably".

(Reason,) 恐怕 + Fact / Conclusion

Examples

  • 明天 我 很 忙,恐怕 没 有 时间。Míngtiān wǒ hěn máng, kǒngpà méi yǒu shíjiān. I'm busy tomorrow, I'm afraid I don't have time.
  • 已经 很 晚 了,恐怕 他 不 会 来 了。Yǐjīng hěn wǎn le, kǒngpà tā bù huì lái le. It's already very late. I'm afraid he's not coming.
  • 工作 太 多 了,恐怕 今天 做 不 完。 Gōngzuò tài duō le, kǒngpà jīntiān zuò bù wán. There's too much work. I'm afraid I can't finish it all today.
  • 饭 太 多 了,恐怕 我 吃 不 完。Fàn tài duō le, kǒngpà wǒ chī bù wán. There's too much food. I'm afraid I can't eat it all.
  • 这样 做 恐怕 不行。Zhèyàng zuò kǒngpà bù xíng. I'm afraid it doesn't work this way.
  • 恐怕 他 不 会 听 你 的 话。Kǒngpà tā bù huì tīng nǐ de huà. I'm afraid he won't listen to you.

我 with 恐怕

A common mistake many people make when learning "恐怕“ is putting a pronoun, such as "我," before ”恐怕.“ It's a reasonable assumption, as "恐怕“ translates to, "I'm afraid" but the pronoun is more or less implied and grammatically incorrect when preceded by 我:

  • 恐怕今天没有时间做作业。Never put 我 before 恐怕! kǒngpà jīntiān méiyóǔ shíjiān zuò zuòyè.
  • 恐怕今天没有时间做作业。Always use 恐怕 before 我.Kǒngpàjīntiān méiyóǔ shíjiān zuò zuòyè.I'm afraid today I don't have time to do homework.

See also

Sources and further reading

Videos

Books