Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

mings · Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 102

Is the sentence right?

" You just take ten minutes walk."

Please help. Many thanks.

kora · Joined: 21 Oct 2005 Posts: 14

Hayde · Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Posts: 177 Location: Icheon, Korea

Hi,
You can say...
"You just take a ten minute walk."
"I take a 10 minute walk everyday for exercise."
"It is a 10 minute walk to the supermarket from here."

I hope this helps.

Hayde

river1974 · Joined: 20 May 2003 Posts: 525 Location: Taiwan

Hayde · Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Posts: 177 Location: Icheon, Korea

river1974, good question.

I'm a native speaker from Eastern Canada, so it could be different in other areas. British English might be different too. But "ten minute" becomes an adjective here, so it isn't plural. I have never heard "a ten minutes' walk" before. For the "a ten-minute walk" that sounds fine, but I am a lazy writer and write 10 minute Smile

Hayde

iitimone7 · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 400 Location: Indiana, USA

But "ten minute" becomes an adjective here, so it isn't plural. I have never heard "a ten minutes' walk" before. For the "a ten-minute walk" that sounds fine, but I am a lazy writer and write 10 minute Smile

i agree with hayde - ten minute walk is correct.

as far as the "ten minutes' walk" is concerned, the apostrophe after minutes means a totally different thing that what you are trying to say here. examples -

i walked ten minutes from home. (this sentence is correct)

the minutes seemed to stand still forever! (don't worry about the meaning here if it deosn't make sense, but the word minutes in this sentence is singular plural)

the minute's time has gone quickly. (a sentence like this is rarely used because a minute does not usually have possession, but the word minute's in this sentence is singular possessive, which means that a minute wons something)

the minutes' hours went by slowly today at work (a sentence like this, again, is rarely used because a minute does not show possession, but in this sentence, the there is more than one minute showing possession which makes it plural possessive. another way to write this word would be minutes's, but the second s is usually dropped )

i hope that this short lesson makes sense. if not, let me know and i can use an easier word than minute. Wink

iitimone7

river1974 · Joined: 20 May 2003 Posts: 525 Location: Taiwan