Expressing concern with "kongpa"

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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:

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

Sources and further reading

Videos

Yoyo Chinese: "Have to and Don't have to"

Books

Integrated Chinese: Level 1, Part 1 (3rd ed) (pp. 164-5) →buy
40 Lessons for Basic Chinese Course (基础汉语40课下册） (p. 301)→buy