Breakdown of La urgencia es intolerable y llevas mucho tiempo sin avanzar en la fila.
ser
to be
y
and
en
in / on / at
mucho
many / a lot
el tiempo
time
avanzar
to move forward
la fila
the line
sin
without
llevar
to have been (doing) for a time
la urgencia
the urgency
intolerable
intolerable
Questions & Answers about La urgencia es intolerable y llevas mucho tiempo sin avanzar en la fila.
How does the phrase llevas mucho tiempo sin avanzar translate to a past tense concept like "you haven't moved forward"?
This uses the negative durative periphrasis structure: llevar + time expression + sin + infinitive. It expresses how long it has been since an action last happened. Even though llevas is in the present tense, it translates to the English present perfect ("have not moved") because the state of not moving continues into the present.
Does urgencia usually mean "urge"? I thought it meant "emergency" or "urgency".
Why use ser (es intolerable) rather than estar (está intolerable) if this is a temporary situation while waiting in line?
Even though the wait is temporary, adjectives ending in -able or -ible describe inherent qualities of a noun, so they almost always take ser. The urge itself inherently possesses the characteristic of being intolerable, regardless of how long the situation lasts.
Could I use cola instead of fila for "line" here?
Yes, cola is widely used across the Spanish-speaking world for a line of people. However, in some Latin American countries, cola is also slang for a person's rear end, so fila is often preferred to avoid unintentional double meanings.
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