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."

Examples

明天我很忙，恐怕没有时间。Míngtiān wǒ hěn máng, kǒngpà méiyǒu 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.
这样做恐怕不行。Zhèyàng zuò kǒngpà bù xíng.I'm afraid it doesn't work this way.
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.Rice is too much. I'm afraid I can't eat it all.

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 méiyóu shíjiān zuò zuòyè.I'm afraid today I don't have time to do homework.

Structure

Examples

我 with 恐怕

See also

Sources and further reading

Videos

Books