No acaber de...

Question

I understand "acabar de", as in " Acabo de ver esa película", but I have just read that "no acaber de" (plus infinitive) means something completely different. The example was "No acabo de entender lo que escribe este autor."

They don't give any more examples, so I'm not getting a good feel for this. They say it indicates that something just seems impossible.

Could I have some more examples, please? Is this usage common?

Thank you!

Answer 1

I think you could translate 'no acabo de' as 'I don't quite'.....

Eg No acabo de entender lo que me dice.

I don't quite understand what you're telling me.

But I'm not a native speaker so hopefully Laz or someone will come back to confirm (or not je je)

excelente respuesta - 00494d19, Aug 31, 2011

gracias Heidi :) - Kiwi-Girl, Aug 31, 2011

Thanks Kiwi! - MLucie, Sep 1, 2011

Answer 2

That "acaber" is just a misspelling. It should have been "acabar de", and the example "No acabo de entender lo que escribe este autor" corroborates this, since it uses "acabar de".

Thank you, Lazarus. Assuming that it is misspelled, does the "no" change the meaning of the phrase? - MLucie, Aug 31, 2011