La palabra ‘time’ se utiliza muchísimo en inglés y, como nunca tenemos suficiente ‘tiempo’, aquí tienes un resumen de usos y expresiones típicas para aprender y utilizar en tu clase online. It’s time to make time!! (¡Ya es hora de buscar tiempo!)
En esta lista tienes la traducción de cada expresión y un ejemplo de cómo utilizarlas. Las primeras con preposiciones son fáciles de confundir, ¡presta atención a los matices! ¡Espero que te sea de ayuda para no “quedarte a cuadros”!
- At the time – en aquel momento.
- ‘Soon after they met they decided to get married. At the time it seemed an ideal match but within a few years their different personalities began to cause friction.’
- At one time – en cierto momento.
- ‘At one time, the streets of the city were lit by gas, but that was at least a hundred years ago.’
- In time – con tiempo de sobra.
- ‘When she heard her father was dying, she immediately went to the hospital and arrived just in time.’
- On time – con puntualidad.
- ‘The trains are very punctual. They always arrive on time.
- At times – de vez en cuando.
- ‘He’s quite happy in London but of course, he misses Madrid at times.’
- For the time being – por ahora.
- ‘We’re painting our son’s bedroom, so for the time being he is sleeping in our room.’
A continuación, tienes más expresiones muy comunes que contienen la palabra ‘time’.
- Pressed for time – con poco tiempo disponible.
- ‘I’m afraid I can’t talk to you at the moment. I’m a bit pressed for time’
- Behind the times – anticuado, desfasado.
- ‘We must keep up to date. We can’t compete successfully with other firms if we get behind the times in our methods.’
- In his time – en su tiempo / época.
- ‘My father has been to nearly every country in the world in his time.’
- Before my time – antes de mi época, antes de mi participación o conocimiento.
- ‘A person called Wilson used to be CEO of this company but I never met her. It was before my time.’
- At the same time – al mismo tiempo / a su vez.
- ‘Joanne is really looking forward to starting her new job in Athens but at the same time she’s very nervous’
- In no time – en muy poco tiempo, casi instantáneamente.
- ‘She’s very bright and a quick learner. She learnt to use the new computer program in no time’
- All in good time – todo en su moment.
- ‘You can have a new mobile phone but not yet! All in good time’
- In the nick of time – justo a tiempo.
- ‘The firefighters got the children out in the nick of time. Less than a minute later the building collapsed’
- Time after time – una y otra vez.
- ‘I’ve warned them about it time after time but they never listen.’
- About time too – por fin.
- ‘Ah, here you are! About time too! I’ve been waiting for half an hour!’
- For old time’s sake – por los viejos tiempos.
- ‘I met up with 2 old friends recently and we went back to our favourite pub for old time’s sake.’
- Time on his hands – tener tiempo libre.
- ‘Now Steve has retired he finds it strange to have so much time on his hands.’
¡A ver si reconoces las frases en series o películas! En tu clase de inglés puedes practicarlas con tus compañeros a ver si las conocen. Otra buena razón para asistir a clases de inglés Online with Cambridge House – ¡hay tanto que aprender! No time to lose!
Learning all the time with Cambridge House! ☺