tens of minutes - how to say that??? teacher, come to the rescue!!!

[magdalena]

In Polish you can say "several tens of minutes later" meaning 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes later, what do say in English? several minutes would be much shorter span of time, am I right?

[Deborah ESL]

You can say things like:

"In quarter of an hour" (meaning 15 minutes)
"In twenty minutes"
In half an hour"
In three quarters of an hour" (meaning 45 minutes)
and so on.....

Hope this helps!

Deborah ESL

[magdalena]

I have already found a few dozen of minutes, several dozen, thanks !

[Searching for language]

We say decades later, meaning tens of years,
Centuries later, meaning hundreds of years,
Hours later means many hours,
Minutes later, many minutes,

But, I don't think there is an english expression meaning tens of minutes.

[magdalena]

yeah, but I can use several dozen minutes later all was clear....thanks

[Searching for language]

yeah, but I can use several dozen minutes later all was clear....thanks

Yes you can, and you would be gramatically correct, however, if you are speaking to or writing about something in North America, if you say "several dozen minutes" people will wonder about your knowledge of English.

If you mean several dozen minutes, it would be better to say, "approximately a half hour" or "30-45 minutes later"

[BobK]

... or, in an informal context, 'a bit less than/more than an hour' .

b

[magdalena]

OK, thanks:)

[magdalena]

Such are the traps of literal mtranslation- I can always say some time later, or simply, later :)