LnR 038 I'm afraid (Replay) This podcast episode is from March, 2016.

You can listen and repeat using two dialogues. The first one uses "afraid" in the normal way and the second one uses it to make bad news seem softer.

Two friends are talking:

A: What are you afraid of?

B: I'm not afraid of anything!

A: What are you (whatcha) talking about? Last week you screamed when you saw a spider.

B: I didn't know you saw that. Yes, spiders scare me to death. What about you?

A: I don't like spiders, or rats, either, but what I'm really afraid of is elevators. Elevators and caves.

B: Ah, it sounds like you have claustrophobia.

 

A: Let's meet tomorrow afternoon to study for the history test.

B: I'm afraid I'm busy then. What about tomorrow night?

A: That won't work for me. I've got a meeting. I'm afraid it won't end until 9:30.

B: Well, I'm afraid we'll have to get up early the next day to study for it.

A: Well, that won't be fun.

B: Yeah, but we've got to (gotta) do it.