"By the end of the afternoon"

Question

Buenos días,

"By the end of the afternoon" in English means "at the point at which the afternoon ended", and would normally be followed by "we *had* eaten..." i.e. looking back at what *had* already happened before that point, not "we ate...". It looks as though this has been translated as "Hacía el final de la tarde" or "Al final de la tarde" which would backtranslate as "Towards the end of the afternoon" or "At the end of the afternoon, we ate ..." i.e. looking back at what actually happened during the later part of the afternoon -- which makes more sense. I suggest tweaking the English to "Towards the end" or "At the end" to avoid this confusion.

¡Muchas gracias!

Silvia Piriz · Accepted Answer

Hola J. R.
Thanks for pointing this out — you’re absolutely right about the nuance here.
In English, “by the end of the afternoon” typically implies a reference point after the afternoon has finished and often goes together with a past perfect (“we had eaten”), whereas the Spanish expressions “al final de la tarde” or “hacia el final de la tarde” usually refer to what happened towards the end of the afternoon, not looking back from a later point in time.
In this exercise, the intended meaning is the Spanish one: describing events that took place during the later part of the afternoon, not after it had already ended. To avoid the ambiguity you describe, your suggestion makes sense, and adjusting the English prompt to something like “towards the end of the afternoon” or “at the end of the afternoon” would be clearer and more accurate.
Thanks for the careful explanation and for flagging this — we’ll take your feedback into account and revise the English wording to reduce confusion.
Saludos
Silvia