English Experts

[donay mendonça]

Hello everyone,

Andy:I´m going to be a father!(Vou ser pai!)
Lia:Oh,and about time too!(Já tava na hora!)

Good luck!

[claudemircloud]

Existem outras formas?
Em português existem por exemplo, pra dizer a mesma coisa, todas essas e outras:

Tava na hora
Já era tempo
Demorou viu
Finalmente
Até que fim
.....

Thanks in advance

[donay mendonça]

Claudemir,

Em um contexto, podemos usar "At last!"


Boa sorte!

[Flavia.lm]

Complementando:

The expression "It is (high/about) time + past verb test" is used to complain about or criticise something or someone:

It is time that the government took action.
It is about time that the government took action.
It is high time that the government took action.

The words about or high make the criticism even stronger. Note that it is also correct to say:

It is time for the government to take action.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnengl ... h-time.htm

[Selvatice]

Obrigado!

Mas.. enfim... continuei sem compreender o âmago da questão.

Digo, a tradução eu entendo, claro.

Mas esse lance de misturar o presente com o passado é que soa estranho. "Já é hora do governo tomou a ação" "Está mais do que na hora do governou tomou a ação".... A tradução fica esquisita.....

Mas beleza. Se é assim que tem que ser, assim farei. Quando eu for escrever ou falar desse jeito, lembrarei que a tradução "esquisita" é que é o certo de falar.

Obrigado novamente!

Até o próximo "encontro"!

[Flavia.lm]

Selvatice,

Estrutura da língua, não tem muito o que explicar. É questão de acostumar...

Veja um podcast + transcrição da BBC sobre o assunto: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learn ... ge42.shtml

[Henry Cunha]

Quase sempre no passado, mas nem sempre, como neste caso invocando uma ação claramente destinada ao futuro:

"So whatever the outcome of this year’s election, it’s high time government and businesses work together to efficiently accommodate the UK’s growing need for faster broadband." http://www.channelpro.co.uk/Resource/44 ... mises.html

Uma explicação diferente vem do GrammarLog:

QUESTION:
I can't find a rule why it is gramatically correct : "It's high time we send (and not sent) him a registered letter" and "It's about time you spent (and not spend) a little less money."

Thank you for your help.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Czechoslovakia Sun, Dec 9, 2001

GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
My colleague Professor Farbman explains addresses this question this way:
This is another of those cases of "real" and "unreal" conditionals, which in more rational languages would be regulated by subjunctive standards. The issue is how fully the speaker expects the action to happen. If there's a real intention to send that registered letter now that the reminder has been issued, then the verb is present. If the speaker has some doubt that we'll ever get around to sending the letter after all, then the verb is past:

* "It's high time we send him a registered letter." = a plan to do something, a "real" condition for a future action.
* "It's high time we sent him a registered letter." = a regret that we haven't done something, more focus on the past non-action, and a wishful thought about the future action that may or may not take place—an "unreal" (or unsure) condition for a future action.

As for "It's about time," I can't give a grammatical reason why it never sounds right followed by the present. The explanation must be semantic: "about time" seems to move backward more, drawing in shadows of the time that's been spent already, while "high time" seems more neutral, able to be look both ways depending on the speaker's attitude.

From http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ ... ogs471.htm