Someone asks you - Are you good at biology?
As a tutor following replies come to my mind :
- I am not into it.
- I don't tutor biology
- That's not my area of expertise
Which of the above are correct? Any better way to reply back?
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I'm afraid not. – Void Jan 16 at 4:26
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I am not into it.
That is quite informal and I suspect would mostly be used by younger people
I don't tutor biology
That is grammatical but does not really answer the question "Are you good at biology" as you could be brilliant at it but not tutor it.
That's not my area of expertise
That is perfectly fine but quite formal. You would be more likely to use it in writing.
And as @Void mentioned in comments
I'm afraid not
is a very common and correct usage.
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Regarding the sentence - I'm afraid not. If I look in dictionary the meaning for afraid is like - worried, anxious. How does it fits here. If we take the literal meaning of afraid then the sentence I'm afraid not , sounds like I'm worried. – pensee Jan 16 at 19:51
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It is commonly used in the sense of worried or sorry. An alternative would been to have just replied "Sorry". It does not in this context carry the sense of fear. – mdewey Jan 17 at 13:23
