I don’t have enough sleep time.

[Silverobama]

My cousin told me almost every day he finishes doing his homework at 11. He said “I don’t have enough sleep time”. Is it natural? He gets up at 6 every morning.

 

[emsr2d2]

My cousin told me that almost every day he finishes [doing] his homework at 11pm. He said “I don’t have get enough sleep". time”. Is it natural? He gets up at 6 every morning.

See above. "Sleep time" isn't natural. If he really wants to include the word "time", he'd have to say something like "That doesn't give me enough time for a good [night's] sleep".

 

[tedmc]

I'd say "I don't have enough time to sleep".

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd say "I don't have enough time to sleep".

That would suggest that they don't sleep at all. I think what they're trying to suggest is that the time they do have to sleep is insufficient.

 

[tedmc]

That would suggest that they don't sleep at all. I think what they're trying to suggest is that the time they do have to sleep is insufficient.

I don't have time to sleep.
I don't have enough time to sleep.

I think the first sentence is what you are referring to, "Don't have enough" is "have insufficient", isn't it?

 

[emsr2d2]

I don't have time to sleep.
I don't have enough time to sleep.

I think the first sentence is what you are referring to, "Don't have enough" is "have insufficient", isn't it?

No, I already said that your suggested sentence doesn't mean the same as the original. Look at the following two examples, one with "enough" and one without, but which have the same meaning:

I finish work today at 5. I've got to be at yoga at 5.30. I won't have time for dinner. (Eating dinner will be impossible given the timeframe.)
I finish school tomorrow at 3 and I've got a dentist's appointment at 3.45 so I won't have enough time to help you. (Helping you will be impossible given the timeframe.)

 

[Annabel Lee]

I'd say "I don't have enough time to sleep".

That would suggest that they don't sleep at all. I think what they're trying to suggest is that the time they do have to sleep is insufficient.

Interesting issue! One workaround might be to say:

I don't have enough time to get sufficient sleep.
I don't have enough time to get my full quota of sleep.

To take a related case, whereas the sentence I didn't have enough time to read the book suggests that I didn't even start reading the book, the sentence I didn't have enough time to read the whole book suggests that I did read some of it.

 

[tedmc]

No, I already said that your suggested sentence doesn't mean the same as the original. Look at the following two examples, one with "enough" and one without, but which have the same meaning:

I finish work today at 5. I've got to be at yoga at 5.30. I won't have time for dinner. (Eating dinner will be impossible given the timeframe.)
I finish school tomorrow at 3 and I've got a dentist's appointment at 3.45 so I won't have enough time to help you. (Helping you will be impossible given the timeframe.)

Are you saying that these two sentences mean the same thing?

I don't have time to sleep.
I don't have enough time to sleep.

Is "have time" the same as "have enough time"?

 

[tedmc]

I asked ChaGPT if the two sentences mean the same thing and this is the reply:

Not necessarily.

• "I don't have time to sleep." – This can imply that the speaker has no time at all for sleep, suggesting they are constantly busy and might not sleep at all.
• "I don't have enough time to sleep." – This suggests that the speaker does sleep but not as much as they would like or need.

So, the second sentence allows for some sleep, whereas the first one can imply no sleep at all (though context matters).

 

[Annabel Lee]

I asked ChaGPT if the two sentences mean the same thing and this is the reply: . . .

• "I don't have enough time to sleep." – This suggests that the speaker does sleep but not as much as they would like or need.

So, the second sentence allows for some sleep . . . .

ChatGPT's assertion can easily be refuted. Ellipsis is often used with the same construction:

A: Don't you have some time between the two flights?
B: Not enough to sleep.

ChatGPT would be wrong to suppose that B's sentence suggests that he gets some sleep between the two flights. On the contrary, it suggests that he doesn't get any sleep whatsoever between the flights.

 

[tedmc]

What about these sentences?

I don't have food to eat.
I don't have enough food to eat.

Do they mean the speaker has no food to eat in both cases?

 

[emsr2d2]

What about these sentences?

I don't have food to eat.
I don't have enough food to eat.

Do they mean the speaker has no food to eat in both cases?

No. The first means there is no food at all. The second means there's not enough to constitute "enough".

 

[tedmc]

No. The first means there is no food at all. The second means there's not enough to constitute "enough".

That is what puzzles me. "Enough" used in the same sentence with "time" and "sleep" has a different meaning with "food" and "eat".

 

[Annabel Lee]

That is what puzzles me. "Enough" used in the same sentence with "time" and "sleep" has a different meaning with "food" and "eat".

I don't think it's that "enough" has a different meaning. The word strings can simply be parsed in two different ways.

I don't have enough time to spare.

The phrase time to spare functions as a unit there, meaning "free time." The infinitive (to spare) modifies the noun time.

I don't have enough time to spare to work on my tan.

There, the first infinitive (to spare) modifies time, and the second infinitive complements the degree word enough.

 

[jutfrank]

I don't have enough food to eat.
I don't have enough time to sleep.

These sentences are also technically ambiguous. The difference in meaning comes from the two ways of parsing the to-infinitives.