what, would you say, does the figure of speech "years" (hours, days, months) imply?

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catbert

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what, would you say, does the figure of speech "years" (hours, days, months) imply?

I was always under the impression that in a sentence like "Oh, but that was years ago!", the word "years" signifies a fairly substantial number of years, at the very least more than five.

Then somebody told me that anything two or over could be expressed this way.

I don't know, though, saying "years" when it's only two or three just doesn't sound right to me.

Am I mistaken about this?
 
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5jj

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Re: what, would you say, does the figure of speech "years" (hours, days, months) impl

I was always under the impression that in a sentence like "Oh, but that was years ago!", the word "years" signifies a fairly substantial number of years, at the very least more than five.

Then somebody told me that anything two or over could be expressed this way.
You are correct; the 'somebody' is not.
 
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