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