What's the best way to translate "I have a feeling..."
This is not feeling as in feeling happy/sad etc, but instead more of an instinct/idea/guess.
Eg.
I have a feeling that someone here knows the answer to this. =)
Thanks =)
-
1The problem with your example is that "I have a feeling" is more of the idiomatic usage for "I think" rather than actually having a premonition about something.– Eve FreemanCommented Jan 18, 2012 at 17:22
Add a comment
|
4 Answers
I would translate to have a feeling as presentir; here's the definition from the DRAE:
(Del lat. praesentīre).
tr. Intuir, tener la sensación de que algo va a suceder.
tr. Adivinar algo antes que suceda, por algunos indicios o señales que lo preceden.
Your concrete example:
I have a feeling that someone here knows the answer to this.
would be
Presiento que alguien aquí sabe la respuesta.
As Laura has suggested in a comment, another commonly used translation would be Me parece que; in this case,
I have a feeling that someone here knows the answer to this.
would be
Me parece que alguien aquí sabe la respuesta.
Another possibility for to have a feeling would be intuir as in Intuyo que alguien aquí sabe la respuesta, but I would opt for presentir.
answered Jan 18, 2012 at 4:45
-
3@Gonzalo Medina At least in Spain we use a lot "Me parece que..."– LauraCommented Jan 18, 2012 at 14:56
-
1@Laura I agree--I think that's more common and fits the translation closely enough, even though it's not a direct translation. You might consider using "Me parece que..." if the translation should sound natural. My Spanish is from Mexico. Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 17:20
-
@Laura: you're aboslutely right ;-) I've updated my answer to reflect your comment. Thank you! Commented Jan 18, 2012 at 22:15
-
This post has reminded me that sentence heard in the Star Wars saga movies:
I have a bad feeling ···, which was translated asTengo un mal presentimiento.– JdamianCommented Apr 12, 2017 at 17:23
I would translate it to
Tengo la sensación
So your sentence can be translated to:
Tengo la sensación de que alguien aquí sabe la respuesta.
Here you can see more examples of "tengo la sensación" with the corresponding English sentence.
Depending on context, you could also translate it as "sospecho," as in "I suspect."
Just to add a very idiomatic expression (used and understood at least in Spain), I would say:
Me da [a mí] que alguien conoce la respuesta a esta pregunta.
It's just an abbreviation of "me da la sensación de que...". The "a mí" part is optional, you can add it for emphasis.
If you look "dar" up in the dictionary, the meaning I am referring to is:
- tr. Presagiar, anunciar.
