three days in Paris

[navi tasan]

Can one use:
1) It was a nice trip. I was three days in Paris and four days in London.
instead of:
2) It was a nice trip. I was in Paris for three days and in London for four days.

Can one use:
3) He came out of prison and was arrested again a few days later. I think all in all he was six days out of prison.
instead of:
4) He came out of prison and was arrested again a few days later. I think all in all he was out of prison for six days.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[GoesStation]

Only 2 and 4 are natural. Number 1 would work if you replace was with had.

 

[emsr2d2]

Alternatively, 1 would be OK if you changed the word order and added a preposition: It was a nice trip. I was in Paris for three days and in London for four.

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you both very much,

How about:

5) I was three days out of prison when John contacted me.
(Meaning: I had been out of prison for three days when John contacted me.)

6) I was a week in Paris when I lost my passport.
(Meaning: I had been in Paris for a week when I lost my passport)

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[ChinaDan]

Can one use:
1) It was a nice trip. I was three days in Paris and four days in London.
instead of:
2) It was a nice trip. I was in Paris for three days and in London for four days.

Can one use:
3) He came out of prison and was arrested again a few days later. I think all in all he was six days out of prison.
instead of:
4) He came out of prison and was arrested again a few days later. I think all in all he was out of prison for six days.

1. This is okay.

3. This is grammatically correct, but I feel it is ambiguous. "...he was six days out of prison" suggests to me a point in time which was six days after he was released. The first sentence is talking about a duration. You could add, "... when he was taken back into custody" to resolve that.

However, in this case, I prefer sentence #4.

 

[GoesStation]

Thank you both very much,

How about:

5) I was three days out of prison when John contacted me.
(Meaning: I had been out of prison for three days when John contacted me.)

6) I was a week in Paris when I lost my passport.
(Meaning: I had been in Paris for a week when I lost my passport)

Gratefully,
Navi.

Use the had been constructions.

 

[Matthew Wai]

6) I was a week in Paris when I lost my passport.

I would replace 'was' with 'had spent'.

 

[Tdol]

Number 1 sounds OK to me. Maybe I have been abroad too long.