Marika33
Member
- Joined
- May 29, 2023
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Ukrainian
- Home Country
- Ukraine
- Current Location
- Netherlands
I apologize if this seems to anyone like it's just the same question asked again, but I really want to clarify this for myself.
In a short excerpt from a movie called "Alien: Covenant", some members of the crew said different versions of the same idea, "We're heading back", "We're returning", "We are on our way back", "They're coming". Here are the screenshots:
My question is, given these four example sentences said by native English speakers about the very same action, can you ask these (below with numbers) to talk about the amount of time one spent on those actions?
For instance, at 5:20 some people started returning/heading back/being on their way/coming to the destination (let's call it "point Y").
At 5:40 they finally "finished" returning/heading back/being on their way/coming to point Y.
+
That means, at 5:25 (if you had called them, they would've said that) they were returning/heading back/on their way back/coming to Y.
So they were at 5:26, at 5:27, at 5:28 and so on until 5:40 when they finally arrived.
=
In a short excerpt from a movie called "Alien: Covenant", some members of the crew said different versions of the same idea, "We're heading back", "We're returning", "We are on our way back", "They're coming". Here are the screenshots:
My question is, given these four example sentences said by native English speakers about the very same action, can you ask these (below with numbers) to talk about the amount of time one spent on those actions?
For instance, at 5:20 some people started returning/heading back/being on their way/coming to the destination (let's call it "point Y").
At 5:40 they finally "finished" returning/heading back/being on their way/coming to point Y.
+
That means, at 5:25 (if you had called them, they would've said that) they were returning/heading back/on their way back/coming to Y.
So they were at 5:26, at 5:27, at 5:28 and so on until 5:40 when they finally arrived.
=
- They were returning (to Y) for 20 minutes. (?)
- They were heading back (to Y) for 20 minutes. (?)
- They were coming (to Y) for 20 minutes. (?)
- They were on their way (back to Y) for 20 minutes. (?)
+ - It took them 20 minutes to get to Y. (I've heard this is fine)
- It took them 20 minutes to return to Y. (?)
- It took them 20 minutes to head back to Y. (?)
- It took them 20 minutes to come to Y. (?)
+ - They spent 20 minutes getting to Y. (?)
- They spent 20 minutes returning to Y. (?)
- They spent 20 minutes heading back to Y. (?)
- They spent 20 minutes coming to Y. (?)