Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

1) Is the preposition �for� optional in the following sentence or not?
�I stayed there FOR a / one week�
but you can�t say �I�ve been there FOR a week�, can you?

2) Is it correct in English to say �how much time did you stay there� instead of �how much time did you spend there� or �How long did you stay there�?

Thank you for your help.
Hela

[CP]

(1) A native speaker would say any of the following: I stayed there a week. I stayed there one week. I stayed there for a week. I stayed there for one week. I've been here a week. I've been here for a week.

(2) I don't think it's exactly ungrammatical, but you would not likely hear "How much time did you stay there?" However, "How much time did you spend there?" or "How long did you stay there?" are both very likely.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hela]

Thank you very much CP