as long as vs as much as

[chance22]

After tea she will sit down by the fire, sometimes for ____ an hour, and think of her young, confident days.
A. as soon as B. as much as C. as long as D. as many as
In this sentence, "as much as" should be used, but I don't know what's wrong with "as long as". Could you explain that to me? Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

After tea she will sit down by the fire, sometimes for ____ an hour, and think of her young, confident days.
A. as soon as B. as much as C. as long as D. as many as
In this sentence, "as much as" should be used, but I don't know what's wrong with "as long as". Could you explain that to me? Thank you.

Interesting! I would have said "C" was the correct answer. Generally, I would use "as long as" when talking about time. "As much as" isn't wrong, I would just say it's less right!!

It's strange that we use "as long as" yet we don't use "as short as" when talking about time. We say "as little as" which, logically, should be the opposite of "as much as".

She sits down for as little as five minutes.
She sits down for as long as an hour.

 

[Nightmare85]

**Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.**

In my opinion "as long as" sounds more like a condition.
You can stay here as long as you don't make any noise.
(Or else you can go!)

Maybe I would not have known the correct answer (B), but I would never have chosen (C).

Cheers!

 

[emsr2d2]

**Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.**

In my opinion "as long as" sounds more like a condition.
You can stay here as long as you don't make any noise.
(Or else you can go!)

Maybe I would not have known the correct answer (B), but I would never have chosen (C).

Cheers!

Oh, absolutely, "as long as" can be used to mean "provided that", as in your example.

I would, however, certainly say "Sometimes it takes me as long as an hour to get to sleep after I've turned the light off".