Are You Not Going To Tell Me?

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking about day to day activities with a relative, a friend or a colleague.  Perhaps you are catching up with what has been happening over the last few days. Yesterday something seems to have happened and maybe you forgot to mention it. The other person wants to ask you if you are not going to tell him/ her what happened.

He/ she could choose to be less formal and ask you:

¿No me vas a contar lo que pasó ayer?

Alternatively, he/ she could choose to be a little bit more formal and say:

¿No me va a contar (usted) lo que pasó ayer?

 

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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:

• Cannot tell
• Cannot to tell now, but will tell later
  
• Will tell right away
  

Here are some examples which deal with those basic possibilities:

• No, no puedo contartelo (can't tell now)
• No, ahora no puedo, después te cuento (can't now, will tell later)
• Sí, ahora mismo te lo cuento (will tell right way)

Now you should practice answering the question:

¿No me vas a contar lo que pasó ayer?

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:

Love-Spanish.com/ Lessons-Online

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