English Translation
Isn’t it about time to go home?
Is this really how someone would say this?
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Yes.It is rather formal but totally okay.
You are looking for a less formal alternative?
“Schluss für heute!” = “Let’s call it a day.”
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“es ist an der Zeit” is formal or old fashioned, and I doubt anyone would actually say that.
My suggestions, more or less in decreasing formality:
- Ist es nicht so langsam Zeit, nach Hause zu gehen?
- Ich glaube, es wird langsam Zeit, nach Hause zu gehen.
- Wir sollten langsam nach Hause gehen, oder?
- Ich glaub’, langsam wird’s Zeit zu gehen.
- Reicht für heute, oder?
- Schluss für heute!
- Reicht. Ab nach Hause.
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English Translation
Isn’t it about time to go home?
Thanks for the replies. The use of langsam is really throwing me off.
1 Like
Now I understand the problem. It is really a difficult word, considering.
The basic meaning of “langsam” is “slow” oder “slowly” like in “The VW Beetle is a slow car,” = “Der VW Käfer ist ein langsames Auto.”
But there are other usages.
In the sentence above it means that the speaker wants to go home soon but not necessarily immediately.
You can even use it for emphasis:
“Willst Du nicht mal langsam deine Hausaufgaben machen!”
“Don’t you finally want to do your homework”
This is not a question but an order and “mal langsam” here means that it is high time.
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It more or less corresponds to the english “about”.
The thinking here is that time is “slowly” approaching a threshold where one can cosider it to “be time”.
Sentences like “Ich habe langsam keine Lust mehr” - “I’m getting tired of it”
have the same mindset. It’s fun until it slowly reaches a threshold where you had enough of it.
3 Likes
" It is used to emphasize that something should have been done sooner" according to ChatGPT.