Breakdown of A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen.
Questions & Answers about A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen.
A veces means “sometimes” and introduces how frequently the action happens.
- A veces = sometimes, occasionally (neutral frequency)
- A menudo = often, frequently (more frequent)
- Algunas veces = some times / a few times (similar to a veces, but can sound a little more like “on some occasions”)
You could say:
- A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen. – Sometimes my anxiety almost paralyzes me…
- A menudo mi ansiedad casi me paraliza… – Often my anxiety almost paralyzes me…
They’re all grammatically fine; you just change how frequent you say it is.
Using mi ansiedad (“my anxiety”) personalizes it. It’s your own anxiety, not anxiety in general.
- Mi ansiedad = my specific anxiety (very personal, emotional)
- La ansiedad = the anxiety (more general, like a condition or a concept)
- Ansiedad (without article) often used in more abstract or general statements, e.g. La gente siente ansiedad.
In a sentence about feelings and experiences, Spanish frequently uses possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, etc.) where English might or might not use my/your/his. Here, mi ansiedad matches English “my anxiety” very naturally.
Me is a direct object pronoun meaning “me” (the person affected by the action).
- Mi ansiedad = subject (what does the action)
- me = direct object (who receives the action)
- paraliza = verb (3rd person singular, present)
Literally: “Sometimes my anxiety almost paralyzes me before the exam.”
Word-by-word:
- Mi ansiedad (my anxiety)
- me (me)
- paraliza (paralyzes)
So me paraliza = “paralyzes me.”
The natural word order is:
casi + pronoun + verb
So: casi me paraliza.
In Spanish, object pronouns like me, te, lo, la, nos, los, las usually go before the conjugated verb. The adverb casi (almost) normally goes before the pronoun when it modifies the entire action:
- casi me caigo – I almost fall
- casi nos chocamos – we almost crashed
- casi me paraliza – it almost paralyzes me
Me casi paraliza or paraliza casi me sound wrong or, at best, very strange.
That word order is not natural. In Spanish you usually keep:
- Frequency adverb: A veces
- Subject: mi ansiedad
- Other adverbs / pronouns: casi me
- Verb: paraliza
So A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza is the normal order.
Putting casi before mi ansiedad would sound like you’re saying “almost my anxiety…”, which doesn’t make sense. You want “my anxiety almost paralyzes me,” so casi should be near the verb phrase: casi me paraliza.
- Me paraliza = it paralyzes me (something else is the subject)
- Mi ansiedad me paraliza. – My anxiety paralyzes me.
- Me paralizo = I become paralyzed / I paralyze myself (I am the subject doing the action to myself)
- Cuando hablo en público, me paralizo. – When I speak in public, I freeze up.
In your sentence, mi ansiedad is clearly the subject doing the action, so we must say:
Mi ansiedad me paraliza, not mi ansiedad me paralizo.
Spanish contracts de + el into del:
- de + el examen → del examen
This is mandatory in modern standard Spanish. So:
- ❌ antes de el examen
- ✅ antes del examen
But de + la does not contract:
- antes de la clase – before the class
- antes del examen – before the exam
Examen is masculine:
- el examen – the exam
- los exámenes – the exams (note the accent shift in the plural)
That’s why we say:
- del examen = de + el examen (masculine singular)
Spanish uses the simple present very widely to express:
- Habits or regular tendencies
- General truths
So:
A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen.
naturally means:
- “Sometimes my anxiety almost paralyzes me before the exam.”
- Contextually, it also covers “can almost paralyze me” or “tends to almost paralyze me.”
You don’t need a special construction like “can” or “tends to” in Spanish; the simple present already suggests a habitual or recurring situation.
Casi me paraliza can be:
- Literal: “It almost literally paralyzes me.”
- Figurative / emotional: “It almost freezes me / I almost can’t move or act.”
In everyday speech, people often use paralizar figuratively for strong anxiety, fear, or shock:
- El miedo me paraliza. – Fear paralyzes me.
- La vergüenza casi me paraliza. – The embarrassment almost froze me.
So the sentence is perfectly natural for describing emotional or psychological paralysis before an exam.
Yes, but it changes the nuance:
- antes del examen = before the exam (a specific, known exam)
- antes de un examen = before an exam (any exam, more general)
So:
- A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen.
– There’s a particular exam you both know about. - A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes de un examen.
– This is something that can happen before any exam in general.
Both are correct; it depends on what you mean.
Both are seen, but in short sentences, Spanish often omits the comma:
- ✅ A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen. (most common)
- ✅ A veces, mi ansiedad casi me paraliza antes del examen. (also acceptable)
The version without the comma is more typical in everyday writing and feels more fluid in this short sentence.
Ansiedad is pronounced approximately as:
- [ahn-syeh-DAD] (Latin American Spanish)
Stress falls on the last syllable: -dad.
Syllable breakdown:
- an – sie – dad
The d at the end is often softened or lightly pronounced in many Latin American accents, but it’s still there.
You can keep it very close:
- A veces casi me paralizo por la ansiedad antes del examen.
Changes:
- me paralizo – I become paralyzed / I freeze up
- por la ansiedad – by anxiety (shows the cause)
So:
- A veces mi ansiedad casi me paraliza… – My anxiety almost paralyzes me.
- A veces casi me paralizo por la ansiedad… – I almost get paralyzed by anxiety.
Both are natural; they just change the grammatical subject.