“Excuse me, sir, but I’m afraid that I’ve been stupid enough to put my foot underneath yours. Could you possibly move?”
I wonder if I can say “Excuse me, sir, but I’m afraid of being stupid enough to put my foot underneath yours” as well.
Many thanks in advance. Greetings.
In this context I think the original sentence is preferred because it’s strictly past tense. Somebody has stepped on the speaker’s foot. This is an action that happened in the past.
A similar sentence that my father used is
“Pardon me sir, but I’m under your foot.”
One is ‘have been stupid enough’ and the other is ‘afraid of being stupid enough’ - both are not the same in meaning. It is FACT vs FEAR!
The former establishes the fact of stupidity but the latter implies only the fear of stupidity.