-1

The match starts at 5 pm and you turned your TV on at 4:45 pm.

And you said "it's not the time to watch the match" (the same way you say "it's not time to have dinner") or "the match hasn't started yet".

Are they interchangeable?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Well, obviously you can only watch the match once it has started, so I think most people would say "It's not time for the match yet."
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jul 23, 2020 at 13:04

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

They're obviously not fully interchangeable - it's possible that it's not the time to watch the match because the match has already finished.

Overall, you could use "it's not the time to..." in a literal fashion to mean that something cannot be done at this time, but to me it wouldn't sound natural. Usually, this phrase means that you shouldn't be doing something, rather than that you aren't able to - because it's inappropriate, for example, or because it'll make things worse.

For instance, if someone has just died and your friend wants to watch a match, you could tell him that "it's not the time to watch a match" - meaning that it's inappropriate to do so when you're grieving.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .