Timeline for What's the difference between making something “in ten minutes” or “for ten minutes"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Sep 1, 2020 at 16:22 | comment | added | SirTechSpec | By the way, for the original poster's benefit: I realize I said "for ten minutes straight", which would be a much more common way of expressing the (hypothetical) example with "for". If I say "I played videogames for 6 hours yesterday", that might have included breaks for food, etc. If I say "I played videogames for 6 hours straight yesterday", that means 6 continuous hours, no stopping. (A listener might wonder whether I really meant "no stopping [at all]" or "no stopping [except bathroom breaks]" - could go either way, but the most literal meaning is "no stopping at all".) | |
| Sep 1, 2020 at 16:17 | comment | added | SirTechSpec | The accepted answer is more straightforward, but I actually prefer this one. When I'm comparing two words in a new language, "what would not qualify as X?" is often more helpful than just the definitions. That said, I disagree with your first sentence - it's Ramsay who will be attempting to do it for ten minutes straight without (for example) losing patience and leaving. There's no guarantee that the footage you see of that event will be exactly 10 minutes long, and indeed, such things are often cut for TV - you'd see him starting out, then maybe the last few minutes, for maximum drama. | |
| Aug 31, 2020 at 22:18 | comment | added | V2Blast♦ | ""Gordon Ramsay attempts to make fish and chips for ten minutes" would mean you are promised to see footage which is exactly 10 minutes long showing Gordon Ramsay performing the task of making fish and chips." Sounds like the title of a bizarre YouTube video... | |
| Aug 31, 2020 at 12:44 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | Which is approximately what I said yesterday! | |
| Aug 31, 2020 at 11:11 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 31, 2020 at 11:55 | |||||
| Aug 31, 2020 at 11:11 | history | answered | Philipp | CC BY-SA 4.0 |