[General] It is a long

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suniljain

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1)It is a long journey.
The journey is long.

2) It is only ten minutes walk.
The distance is only ten minutes through walk.

Do both the sentences convey the same meaning.
 

teechar

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1)It is a long journey.
The journey is long.

2) It is only a ten-minute walk.
[STRIKE]The distance is only ten minutes through walk.[/STRIKE]

Do both [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] sentences in each pair convey the same meaning?

The first pair mean the same thing.

I crossed out the second sentence in #2 because it's ungrammatical, unnatural and also because distance is not measured in minutes!
 

MikeNewYork

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Where I live, distance is often measured in minutes.

How far are you from Manhattan? About 45 minutes.
How far are you from my apartment? About 20 minutes by cab.
 

suniljain

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The first pair mean the same thing.

I crossed out the second sentence in #2 because it's ungrammatical, unnatural and also because distance is not measured in minutes!

Can you please explain why can't we use "s" in minute and Is "the" is incorrect as we have used "in each pair"?
 

suniljain

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Originally Posted by suniljain
Is "the" is incorrect as we have used "in each pair"?



I would say 'both sentences' or 'both of the sentences' but not 'both the sentences'.

May I write:

Do both the above sentences convey the same meaning?
 

Matthew Wai

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I would say 'both of the above sentences', but I am not a teacher.
 

teechar

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Where I live, distance is often measured in minutes.

How far are you from Manhattan? About 45 minutes.
How far are you from my apartment? About 20 minutes by cab.

To me these sentences are estimating duration rather than measuring distance.

The point is that I would not naturally use "minutes" if I was talking about "distance" as such.
;-)
 

MikeNewYork

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Obviously, others see it differently. ;-)
 

Skrej

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It is completely natural and extremely common to respond to distance questions with time.

In fact, I typically do answer distance with time, unless somebody has specifically asked me how many miles.

I could tell you that of the two nearest major cities from me, one's just under a 3 hour drive and the other's a good 4 hours, but I honestly couldn't tell you how many actual miles either one is. If I were to ask my friends, they'd answer similarly, in hours.

Mileage doesn't vary, but the time does depending on variables such as traffic, weather, who's driving, etc. So, people are more interested in the time than the actual number of miles. You can still give a sense of the linear distance though by specifying if it's a 5 minute walk, a 10 minute ride, a 2 hour flight, and so on.
 

mawes12

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2) It is only ten minutes walk.
The distance is only ten minutes through walk.

I think you can also say the walk is only ten minutes.
 

Matthew Wai

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I think you can also say 'The walk takes only ten minutes', but I am not a teacher.
 

Polyester

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Can I say
"The destination is far away from here to there. It may take a hour long."
 

Rover_KE

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No. That's ungrammatical.
 

Polyester

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Can you help or assist me to do the revision for the sentence?
Rover_KE
 

Matthew Wai

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I think the following is grammatical, but I am not a teacher.
'The destination is far away. It takes an hour to go there.'
 

teechar

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It is completely natural and extremely common to respond to distance questions with time.
I don't think you read my post #8.

If you did read it, then I'd like to ask if you find it natural (or indeed "extremely common" as you claim) to say:
"The distance from the house to the school is 10 minutes."
 

Matthew Wai

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I would not say it, but I am not a teacher.
 
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