ENGLISH → MEXICAN SPANISH

On time.

A tiempo.

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MEANING & CONTEXT

The words, and when to use them

“A tiempo.” means “On time.” in Mexican Spanish. This expression belongs to Time and Frequency. Reassure / encourage.

Register: Neutral. Gender form: neutral.

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Topics

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Making Plans Time and Frequency

Difficulty

Poquito’s learning difficulty bands reflect length, vocabulary, grammar and idiom. These are editorial estimates, not CEFR levels.

Beginner

Filters

Usefulness

Essential, High and Normal describe the practical value of learning a phrase. Usefulness is independent of difficulty.

High

Conversation builder

Expressions marked as helpful for opening or extending a conversation.

Yes

Situation specific

Separate broadly reusable expressions from phrases tied to particular situations.

Your favorites and memorization

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Memorization uses your latest English-first rating.

Why this difficulty rating?

Length 3 points: 2 spoken words; gender alternatives count once.
Vocabulary 0 points: Editorial vocabulary load, using a basic-word list and frequency within this deck.
Grammar 3 points: Short expression or simple present-tense pattern.
Idiom 0 points: Meaning is largely direct.
Reuse -2 points: 1 content-word families appear in at least four cards; familiarity reduces the score.

Keep the conversation going

Explore related topic →

Time’s up!¡Se acabó el tiempo!
“¡Se acabó el tiempo!” means “Time’s up!” in Mexican Spanish. A timer, game, or allotted period has ended.
ModerateHighEnglish first →Spanish first →
Do you have time?¿Tienes tiempo?
“¿Tienes tiempo?” means “Do you have time?” in Mexican Spanish. Check whether someone has time for a conversation or task.
BeginnerEssentialEnglish first →Spanish first →
Do I have time?¿Tengo tiempo?
“¿Tengo tiempo?” means “Do I have time?” in Mexican Spanish. Check whether the speaker has enough time for an understood action.
BeginnerEssentialEnglish first →Spanish first →
Time flies.El tiempo vuela.
“El tiempo vuela.” means “Time flies.” in Mexican Spanish. Comment conventionally that time seems to pass quickly.
EasyNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →
At the same time.Al mismo tiempo.
“Al mismo tiempo.” means “At the same time.” in Mexican Spanish. Say events/actions happen simultaneously.
BeginnerNormalEnglish first →Spanish first →
Don’t waste time.No pierdas el tiempo.
“No pierdas el tiempo.” means “Don’t waste time.” in Mexican Spanish. Ask listener not to waste time on an understood task.
ModerateHighEnglish first →Spanish first →

Technical Specs

Formality and register

How a phrase addresses someone: Neutral, Familiar (tú), or Formal (usted). Politeness also depends on wording and context; tú can be polite.

Neutral

Conversation role

What the phrase does in a conversation. A phrase can have several standardized roles, such as asking, answering or sharing information.

Reassure or encourage

Situations

The specific setting recorded by the editorial review. Not every phrase has a named situation.

Not recorded

Gender forms

Explore the grammatical gender forms recorded for each phrase. Grammatical gender is different from the speaker’s identity.

neutral

Who or what gender refers to

Find whether gender wording relates to the speaker, listener, noun or object.

Not recorded

Learning collections

The fixed introductory collection and editorial Core or Expansion placements.

Not recorded

Vocabulary families

Browse recorded word families shared by phrases. These editorial family labels may not be dictionary headwords.

tiempo

Vocabulary familiarity

Everyday, less common and specialized vocabulary, considered separately from grammatical difficulty.

Not recorded

Reusability

Editorial score for how broadly an expression can be reused; higher scores indicate more reuse.

Coverage gap value

Editorial estimate of how much the phrase adds to the collection’s practical coverage.

Ambiguity risk

Editorial score for how strongly meaning can depend on context; higher values indicate more ambiguity.

Confusion risk

Editorial estimate of the chance of confusing the expression with another; higher values indicate more risk.

Spanish word count

Explore shorter and longer expressions using the recorded Spanish word count.

1–3

Usefulness score

The detailed editorial usefulness score, distinct from the three usefulness labels.

Difficulty score

Scores run from 5 to 100. These ten-point ranges show the finer distribution within difficulty bands.

5–10

Vocabulary contribution

Recorded number of vocabulary-family contributions; it is not a learner’s vocabulary size.

Review dates

When the recorded editorial review was performed.

2026-10-14

Editorial quality

Recorded review status and quality classification.

Reviewed for Spanish (Mexico)

Source batches

Editorial import batches where source information is recorded.

Time adverbs screenshot

Review methods

How the recorded editorial ratings were assigned. These are assessments rather than measured learning outcomes.

Editorial rules: templates, topic/role density, context dependence, and same-topic word-family overlap

Difficulty rubric versions

The version of the editorial difficulty rubric used for a phrase.

Introductory speakers

The speaker roles recorded for the fixed introductory dialogue.

Not recorded

Length difficulty factor