during january 1-3

[kvvic]

Dear all,

I'm editing a translation and would appreciate your opinion about the preposition 'during' in the sentence below.

Mr. X is supposed to come to the city of Y to take part in the negotiations during January 1-3.

My feeling is that although the meaning is probably clear, it's not the right word to use here. Could you please confirm or deny it?

[susiedq]

It is not clear what you want to say.

Is Mr. x coming to the city Jan 1 - 3?

Or do the negotiations last Jan 1 - 3 and he will take part in them during that time?

Mr. X is supposed to come to the city of Y to take part in the negotiations sometime between January 1-3.

[kvvic]

What is meant is that the negotiations will take place from Jan 1 through 3, and Mr. X is supposed be present on each of these days.
Should it be like this?

Mr. X is supposed to come to the city of Y to take part in the negotiations on January 1-3.

[billmcd]

Dear all,

I'm editing a translation and would appreciate your opinion about the preposition 'during' in the sentence below.

My feeling is that although the meaning is probably clear, it's not the right word to use here. Could you please confirm or deny it?

Yes, I agree. I would not use any word as, ".....negotiations January 1-3" or "during the period January 1-3".

[kvvic]

Thanks for your comments, Susiedq and Billmcd.
I'd like to modify a little bit my question. Initially, I thought that 'during' is never used in such expressions as 'during January 1-3' and so on, but Google gives a lot of hits for such combinations. So I'd like to understand the meaning of such phrases.
Does 'during', e.g., in the phrase 'during March 10-15' emphasize that the author is talking not only about days but also about nights of this period?

[billmcd]

Thanks for your comments, Susiedq and Billmcd.
I'd like to modify a little bit my question. Initially, I thought that 'during' is never used in such expressions as 'during January 1-3' and so on, but Google gives a lot of hits for such combinations. So I'd like to understand the meaning of such phrases.
Does 'during', e.g., in the phrase 'during March 10-15' emphasize that the author is talking not only about days but also about nights of this period?

It doesn't have that meaning for me. "During" with the dash ( - ) between 10 and 15 is redundant. I might be able to live with "during the period March 10-15".

[kvvic]

billmcd
Thanks again for your explanations.

[kvvic]

Just to improve my understanding.
Let's make the original sentence clearer:

Mr. X is supposed to come to the city of Y during January 1-3.

As far as I understand from the posts above, there's something wrong with the use of 'during' in this sentence. Is it because of grammatical or some other reasons?

[billmcd]

Just to improve my understanding.
Let's make the original sentence clearer:As far as I understand from the posts above, there's something wrong with the use of 'during' in this sentence. Is it because of grammatical or some other reasons?

Ref. susiedq's response and also if there is such a rule, I'm not aware of it, but I would think that "during" suggests a broad or general period of time (e.g. during January/during the week of September 5th/during World War II etc.) and if used as in your example, I would prefer to see the statement read as, "during the period January 1st to 3rd" or as posted by susiedq.

[kvvic]

And what about:

Mr. X is supposed to come to the city of Y on January 1-3.

Will it be incorrect to use 'on' before this period?