Tienes bastante tiempo.

Sentence Discussions Spanish
#1
English Translation

You have enough time.

Could you also say suficiente instead of bastante? If not, what is the difference?

#2

It’s my understanding that you can use suficiente instead of bastante when the latter is used as an adjective, like here, but when used as an adverb you cannot (you could then use suficientemente). But it should be noted that they are not fully interchangeable: you would hardly say “tengo suficiente frío” instead of “tengo bastante frío”.

Also, there’s the matter of placement. The Tatoeba sentence has a parallell translation: “Tienes tiempo suficiente.”, which reflects that suficiente is often placed after the noun.

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#3

The difference between these two sentences is this:

  1. Tienes suficiente tiempo.
    You have more time than you need, but not much more. You have to hurry.
  2. Tienes bastante tiempo.
    You have much more time than you need and you don’t need to hurry.

Hope this helps.

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