只是这个事情 过去的时间有点长
“It's just that it's been a long time.”
THE DIALOGUE REEL
“No trouble at all. I should cooperate with the police.”
只是 这个 事情 过去 的 时间有点长
“It's just that it's been a long time.”
“I'm afraid I might not remember many details clearly.”
“Do not blame me if I get details wrong or cannot remember.”
Speakers proactively state limitations to avoid being viewed as unreliable or deceitful if memory fails later.
LEARNING CHUNKS & PARTICLES
it's just that / only
Used at the start of a clause to introduce a gentle caveat, limitation, or excuse.
quite a long time has passed
A polite, standard way to preface memory lapses about past events.
VOCABULARY & EXPRESSIONS
Parallel Spoken Cinema Scenes (语义近邻切片)
“It was all so long ago.”
“It's been so long since this happened.”
“it has been so many years.”
“I want to say that the past few weeks”
“but as for the long term...”
“Sometimes, it's just a small matter. It's all in the past.”
“Have a seat. This incident happened quite a while ago.”