When you trip on a slippery floor but catch your balance, you experience a near miss. In Spanish, to express that something almost happened, use the phrase por poco (literally: "by a little").
Surprisingly, even when talking about an event narrowly avoided in the past, por poco is followed by a verb in the present indicative. Using the present tense makes the averted mishap feel vivid and immediate.
| The floor is very slippery and I almost fell. | El suelo está muy resbaladizo y por poco me caigo. |
| Yesterday I almost knocked over my grandmother's teapot. | Ayer por poco vuelco la tetera de mi abuela. |
Clumsy moments
You will often see this structure paired with descriptions of clumsiness or precarious situations. Notice how the surrounding context can be in the past tense, but the verb following por poco remains in the present.
| Because he is so clumsy, the boy almost knocked over the stool. | Por ser tan torpe, el niño por poco vuelca el taburete. |
| Ma'am, is the teapot yours? It almost fell from the ledge. | Señora, ¿la tetera es suya? Por poco cae de la repisa. |
| The girl left the plate on the edge and she almost spilled the broth. | La chica dejó el plato en el borde y por poco derrama el caldo. |
| Because I was looking at my mobile, I almost broke the teapot. | Por mirar el móvil, por poco rompo la tetera. |
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