isn't someone supposed to
242
7.5
- idiom
- Informal
:
no se supone que...
- Isn't someone supposed to help me carry these heavy boxes?
- isn't someone supposed to know
- isn't one supposed to
Examples
-
Someone was supposed to tell you guys.
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This isn't how it's supposed to be.
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- I know we're not supposed to, but...
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But you know we're not supposed to go above ground.
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- Richard, we are not supposed to be talking like this.
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I think about getting out and going over, but I am not even supposed to be here.
Fiction book (1992) -
We live in a world that is not supposed to exist.
Academic text (2007) -
Apparently, since she had not known him in life, she was not supposed to know him in death.
Fiction book (1991) -
I should explain that, as a rule, federal officials were not supposed to make spontaneous comments to the press.
Academic text (1995) -
Wait a second, weren't you supposed to hang out with Eden tonight?
Surface Forms
Morphology
isn't + someone + supposed + to
The meaning is directly built from the constituents: 'supposed to' conveys expectation/obligation, 'someone' denotes an unspecified person, and the negated question 'isn't' signals that this expected action has not occurred (often with surprise). This compositional structure is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the parts can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Isn't someone supposed to creates a clear picture: a job is waiting but no one is doing it. You ask if someone was 'supposed' to do it, so the question shows surprise that the expected action did not happen.