Breakdown of A veces tengo miedo de hacer preguntas en la clase.
Questions & Answers about A veces tengo miedo de hacer preguntas en la clase.
In Spanish, many feelings are expressed with tener + noun, not with ser/estar + adjective.
- tener miedo = to be afraid / to be scared (literally, to have fear)
- estar miedo is incorrect.
- ser miedo is also incorrect.
You can say:
- estoy asustado / estoy miedoso = I am scared / I am fearful (using estar + adjective)
But with miedo, the natural expression is tener miedo.
In Spanish, when tener miedo is followed by a verb in the infinitive, you normally need the preposition de:
- tener miedo de + infinitive
- Tengo miedo de hacer preguntas. = I’m afraid to ask questions.
Leaving out de (tengo miedo hacer) is not standard; it sounds wrong to native speakers. This is just a fixed pattern you have to memorize: tener miedo de + infinitive.
Both miedo de and miedo a exist, but they’re used a bit differently and preferences vary by region.
With an infinitive verb (like hacer), miedo de + infinitive is more common and sounds more neutral:
- Tengo miedo de hacer preguntas. ✅ (very natural)
- Tengo miedo a hacer preguntas. ✅ (understood, some people do say this, but it’s less common in many areas)
With nouns, both are used:
- Tengo miedo de los perros.
- Tengo miedo a los perros.
In Latin America, miedo de + infinitive is generally the safest, most standard choice.
Yes, you can say:
- A veces tengo miedo de preguntar en la clase. ✅
This is correct and natural.
However, Spanish very often uses the structure hacer una pregunta / hacer preguntas (literally to make a question / questions) where English says to ask a question / questions:
- hacer una pregunta = to ask a question
- hacer preguntas = to ask questions
So:
- tengo miedo de hacer preguntas emphasizes the action of asking questions in general.
- tengo miedo de preguntar is a bit more direct and abstract: I’m afraid to ask (to speak up, to ask anything).
Both are fine; hacer preguntas is especially common in a classroom context.
Yes, you can also say:
- A veces tengo miedo de hacer una pregunta en la clase. ✅
The meaning changes slightly:
hacer preguntas (plural) = to ask questions (in general, repeatedly)
- Suggests a general habit: you often have questions, or you might ask several questions.
hacer una pregunta (singular) = to ask a question (one specific question)
- Suggests a single question at a time.
In English you also naturally say “I’m afraid to ask questions in class”, which matches the Spanish plural preguntas very well, so the plural is very natural here.
Tener miedo is a set expression that normally does not use an article:
- Tengo miedo. = I’m afraid.
You only use an article or other modifiers when you say something more specific:
- Tengo mucho miedo. = I’m very afraid.
- Tenía un miedo terrible. = He/She had a terrible fear.
- Tengo un miedo irracional a las arañas. = I have an irrational fear of spiders.
In your sentence, we’re talking about fear in general, so the natural form is simply tengo miedo.
A veces means sometimes, and placing it at the beginning is very common and neutral:
- A veces tengo miedo de hacer preguntas en la clase.
You can move a veces around without changing the basic meaning:
- Tengo miedo a veces de hacer preguntas en la clase.
- Tengo a veces miedo de hacer preguntas en la clase.
All are grammatically correct. Differences:
- At the beginning, it sounds clean and natural, like English “Sometimes I’m afraid…”
- In the middle, it sounds a bit more formal or slightly more marked in rhythm, but still correct.
For everyday speech, A veces tengo miedo… is the simplest and most common.
Both are possible:
- en la clase
- en clase
en clase (without article):
- Means “in class / during class” in a general sense, like an activity or time period.
- Very common in both Spain and Latin America:
- Me da vergüenza hablar en clase. = I’m embarrassed to speak in class.
en la clase (with la):
- Refers more to a specific class (a group or a particular class session).
- In many Latin American contexts, en la clase is also very common and can feel more concrete:
- En la clase de matemáticas casi no hablo.
In your sentence, en la clase is perfectly natural and could be understood as “in that class / in my class”.
En clase would also be fine and perhaps a little more general: “in class (whenever I’m in class).”
In Spanish, subject pronouns (yo, tú, él, etc.) are often dropped because the verb ending already shows the subject:
- Tengo miedo. = I’m afraid.
The -o ending of tengo already tells you it’s yo.
You usually include yo only when you want to add emphasis or contrast:
- Yo tengo miedo, pero ellos no. = I am afraid, but they aren’t.
- A veces yo tengo miedo de hacer preguntas. (emphasis on I, not someone else)
So A veces tengo miedo de… is the most natural form in neutral speech.
Yes, you can say:
- A veces tengo temor de hacer preguntas en la clase. ✅
temor and miedo are very close in meaning, but:
- miedo is more common and more colloquial in everyday speech.
- temor can sound a bit more formal, serious, or literary, though it’s also used in normal conversation.
In a simple, everyday sentence like yours, miedo is the most natural choice, but temor is correct and understood.
You can say:
- A veces estoy asustado de hacer preguntas en la clase. ✅
Differences:
tengo miedo de…
- Very standard way to say I’m afraid of / to…
- Slightly more neutral.
estoy asustado (de)…
- Emphasizes the state of being scared in that moment.
- Feels a bit more emotional or intense.
In many situations, they are almost interchangeable. For general, habitual feelings (like in your sentence), tengo miedo de… is more common and idiomatic.
They mean different things:
hacer preguntas en la clase
- to ask questions in class
- You (the student) ask questions to the teacher or during the class session.
- Focus on where/when you ask (in class).
hacer preguntas a la clase
- to ask questions to the class
- Usually the teacher is asking questions to the students.
- Focus on who receives the questions (the class as the audience).
So your sentence:
- A veces tengo miedo de hacer preguntas en la clase.
means you’re afraid to ask questions while you are in class, not that you’re afraid to question the class as a group.