Breakdown of Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen final de matemáticas.
Questions & Answers about Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen final de matemáticas.
In Spanish, many feelings that use “to be” in English use “tener” (to have) instead.
Common pattern: tener + noun
- tener miedo = to be afraid (literally “to have fear”)
- tener hambre = to be hungry (to have hunger)
- tener sed = to be thirsty (to have thirst)
- tener frío/calor = to be cold/hot
So:
- Tengo miedo = I am afraid
- Estoy miedo is incorrect, because miedo is a noun, and estar doesn’t usually take a bare noun like that to describe a temporary state.
- Soy miedo is also incorrect; ser is not used for this expression either.
You can use estar with an adjective:
- Estoy asustado / Estoy asustada = I am scared
but when you use miedo, you almost always use tener: tengo miedo.
The expression is tener miedo de + something. The de links the fear to its cause.
Two very common structures are:
tener miedo de + infinitive
- Tengo miedo de reprobar. = I’m afraid of failing.
- Tengo miedo de volar. = I’m afraid of flying.
tener miedo de que + subjunctive
- Tengo miedo de que repruebe el examen. = I’m afraid (that) I’ll fail the exam.
Without de, the sentence sounds incomplete or incorrect.
You may also see tener miedo a + noun, especially with things or people:
- Tengo miedo a las arañas. = I’m afraid of spiders.
- Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen. = I’m afraid of failing the exam.
With verbs, de + infinitive is by far the most normal choice.
Yes. In this context, reprobar = “to fail (an exam, a class, a course)”.
Usage:
In Latin America, reprobar is very common in school/university contexts:
- Reprobé el examen. = I failed the exam.
- Si repruebo el curso, tengo que repetirlo. = If I fail the course, I have to retake it.
In Spain, you’ll more often hear suspender in this sense:
- Suspendí el examen. (Spain) = I failed the exam.
Other verbs:
- fallar = to fail at something in a more general way: to make a mistake, to mess up, to not work
- El motor falló. = The engine failed.
- Fallé en el intento. = I failed in the attempt.
- fracasar = to fail (in life, in a project, etc.), more “big-picture” failure.
For a test/subject/grade in Latin American Spanish, reprobar is the natural verb.
After “tener miedo de”, if you refer directly to an action, Spanish normally uses the infinitive:
- Tengo miedo de reprobar. = I’m afraid of failing.
- Tengo miedo de hablar en público. = I’m afraid of speaking in public.
If you want a full clause (with a subject), you usually use “de que + subjunctive”:
- Tengo miedo de que repruebe el examen.
Literally: I’m afraid that I (will) fail the exam.
Both versions are correct but slightly different in structure:
- de + infinitive: focuses on the action itself.
- de que + subjunctive: focuses on the fact or possibility that something will happen.
In your sentence, the speaker is talking about the action in general: de reprobar.
In Spanish, countable, specific nouns almost always need an article or a determiner:
- el examen, un examen, mi examen, etc.
Here we’re talking about a specific exam: the math final exam (the one in this course). So:
- el examen final = the final exam.
If you said just reprobar examen final (no article), it would sound incomplete or ungrammatical in standard Spanish.
You could change the article for another determiner:
- reprobar mi examen final de matemáticas = fail my math final exam.
- reprobar ese examen final = fail that final exam.
But you almost always need something (article/determiner) before examen.
The structure is:
- el examen (the exam – noun)
- final (final – adjective)
- de matemáticas (of math – prepositional phrase describing the subject)
So literally:
- el examen final de matemáticas = the final exam of mathematics.
Word order rules here:
- In Spanish, descriptive adjectives like final normally come after the noun:
- examen final (not final examen)
- The phrase de matemáticas specifies what the exam is about.
You generally cannot say:
- el examen de matemáticas final – this sounds unnatural or clumsy. Spanish doesn’t like stacking adjectives after the noun and a long de-phrase like that. The natural order is the one you have:
[noun] + [key adjective] + de [area/field]
→ examen final de matemáticas.
This is just a difference in how each language conceptualizes the subject.
- In Spanish, las matemáticas is plural and feminine.
- Me gustan las matemáticas. = I like math.
- el examen de matemáticas = the math exam.
Historically, Spanish tends to use the plural for some fields of study:
- las matemáticas (mathematics)
- las ciencias (the sciences)
- las letras (the humanities)
In some contexts, especially in more technical or academic writing, you might see la matemática referring to the discipline in a more abstract sense (as a science), but for school subjects and everyday use, las matemáticas is the normal form.
Both tener miedo a and tener miedo de exist, but there are tendencies:
With nouns (things, animals, people), both are used:
- Tengo miedo a los perros.
- Tengo miedo de los perros. Both mean: I’m afraid of dogs.
Many speakers prefer miedo a + noun, especially in some regions.
With verbs (infinitives), the most natural in standard usage is miedo de + infinitive:
- Tengo miedo de reprobar. ✓
- Tengo miedo de hablar en público. ✓
Miedo a + infinitive (tengo miedo a reprobar) is heard but sounds less standard/natural to many speakers.
In Latin American Spanish and in careful/neutral language, “tener miedo de + infinitive” is the safer, more standard choice for actions:
- Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen.
Yes. You can use a direct object pronoun to replace el examen final de matemáticas:
- Tengo miedo de reprobarlo.
= I’m afraid of failing it.
A couple of points:
- The pronoun lo replaces a masculine singular direct object:
- el examen → lo
- Word order with infinitives:
- You can attach the pronoun to the infinitive:
reprobarlo
→ Tengo miedo de reprobarlo. - If the verb were conjugated, it would go before the verb:
No lo repruebes. = Don’t fail it.
- You can attach the pronoun to the infinitive:
But in your original sentence, using the full phrase el examen final de matemáticas makes it clear exactly which exam you mean.
Yes, that’s a very natural alternative:
- Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen final de matemáticas.
(infinitive) - Tengo miedo de que repruebe el examen final de matemáticas.
(subjunctive)
Use:
- de + infinitive when the subject is the same:
- I am afraid of failing → Tengo miedo de reprobar.
- de que + subjunctive when:
- you want a full clause, or
- the subject might be different:
- Tengo miedo de que mi hijo repruebe el examen.
I’m afraid my son will fail the exam.
- Tengo miedo de que mi hijo repruebe el examen.
In your original sentence, the subject (the person who is afraid and the person who might fail) is the same, so de reprobar is very natural and slightly simpler. Using de que repruebe is also correct, but sounds a bit more “sentence-like” and explicit.
Spanish uses the present tense here to state a current feeling about a future event.
- Tengo miedo… = Right now, I am afraid.
- The event causing the fear (failing the exam) is in the future, but that doesn’t change the tense of tener.
This is similar to English:
- I’m afraid of failing the final exam.
→ present “I’m (am)” + “failing” describing a future situation.
If you really wanted to highlight the future, you could say:
- Tengo miedo de que voy a reprobar el examen. (understandable, but less natural)
- Tengo miedo de que vaya a reprobar el examen. (more idiomatic with subjunctive construction)
However, the simple Tengo miedo de reprobar el examen final de matemáticas is the most natural and compact way to say this.