I'm subtitiling a road rage video where two cars, one after another, are driving in a place where there is no driving (pedestrian zone.) A pedestrian steps in front of them, they stop, and the driver of the first car says:
- I'll back up. Just have that car behind me move first.
To which the pedestrian replies:
- I think he'll understand it now by himself (meaning that he thinks the second driver will understand that he needs to start backing up, so that the first car could back up too.)
So I wanted to ask, is this phrase grammatical or would you say it differently?
Maybe:
- "I think he gets it" or "I think he'll figure it out" or simpy "I think he'll understand"? Or maybe something completely different?
Best Answer
"I think he'll [be able to] [figure/work] it out [by himself]" is probably fine for this.
Adding "be able to" makes it sound a little more polite, at least to me as a British English speaker.
I don't see much difference between "figure" and "work", although "figure" feels like a more educated way of speaking.
"By himself" is implied, but you can add it if you like. Some people prefer to speak like that, and it does carry a stronger tone of "stay in the car, you don't need to tell him".
As an aside, your direct translation is also acceptable with some small modifications: add "I think" at the beginning, change "will" to "can", change "it" to "that", and remove "now":