a great deal of time

[user_gary]

I spent a great deal of time in this forum yesterday.

I spent a great deal of time since I joined in this forum.


How would you read these two sentences?

To me, a great deal of time = much. So in the both sentence the phrase "a great deal of time" simply means "(I spent) very much time", I think.

But I will be happy if you tell me how would you read the above two sentences.

[Casiopea]

1. I spent a great deal of time in this forum yesterday.
2. I spent a great deal of time since I joined in this forum.

The phrase a great deal of time is another way of saying a lot of time.

Does that help?

[user_gary]

Does that help?

Yes ! vey much.

I would spend a great deal of my time in this forum.

Is this sentence correct? And how would you read it?

Please help me.

I can understand it as, "I used to spend much time(e.g. 12) of mine in this forum every day".

[Casiopea]

1. I would spend a great deal of my time in this forum.

Meaning 1: past habit
In the past, I had a habit of spending a lot of time in this forum, but I don't do that anymore.

Meaning 2: conditional
I would spend a great deal of time in this forum, if ...



2a. I used to spend much time of mine ...

2b. I used to spend much of my time ...


______________
Correction
Yes!, not Yes !
=> Do not put a space before the punctuation mark.

[user_gary]

Thank you Casiopea.

Did you mean the "I used to spend a great deal of my time in this forum" is incorrect?

[Casiopea]

Ex: I used to spend a great deal of my time in this forum.