abuout a little extra time

Question

talking about time. When you have some extra time to do something, in English we say "cushion" for example. " you have five minutes cushion to pick up the child" how do you say this in Spanish? i thought is was "colchón, but when i used nobody understands it. thanks

just to help you .this is how you spell ..about :) - FELIZ77, Sep 28, 2010

Please use proper spelling grammer and puntuation in your questions as this is a teaching and learning site - FELIZ77, Sep 28, 2010

Answer 1

In Spain we use the word "colchón" to refer to excess amounts of things, especially when they give you some kind of security. When said about time, it would mean that you have more time than you need to perform an action. In your original sentence I probably wouldn't use the word "colchón", I'd say "un margen de cinco minutos" or simply "tienes cinco minutos".

If I wanted to use "colchón" in a sentence I'd say something like this:

"Voy a recoger al niño, ir a la lavandería y hacer unas compras. Tengo un colchón de media hora antes de volver al trabajo así que no creo que llegue tarde"

In that sentence, that "media hora" would be in excess of the time you think it will take for you to do all those actions.

Answer 2

Word reference had a similar discussion, perhaps it will help: Cushion Time

Or if you're using it in another sense, like a protection you would just use the word protección

eg: (from wordref.com)

some extra savings will provide a cushion against inflation,

unos ahorros adicionales supondrán una protección frente a la inflacción