Is it acceptable to use "will be late for five minutes"? - English ...

"The bus will be late for five minutes." Or whether we should always use: "The bus will be five minutes late." The latter phrase is the one that ... EnglishLanguageLearnersStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforspeakersofotherlanguageslearningEnglish.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Startcollaboratingandsharingorganizationalknowledge. CreateafreeTeam WhyTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore Isitacceptabletouse"willbelateforfiveminutes"? AskQuestion Asked 2years,3monthsago Modified 2years,3monthsago Viewed 9ktimes 1 Iwasaskedtodaywhetherwecouldusethephrase: "Thebuswillbelateforfiveminutes." Orwhetherweshouldalwaysuse: "Thebuswillbefiveminuteslate." ThelatterphraseistheonethatIwouldalwaysuse,butIwasn'tsurewhetherthetopphrasewasusedinsomeregions. Ialsowasn'tsurehowtoexplainwhyweuse"fiveminuteslate"inthisway. Manythanksinadvance. grammar Share Improvethisquestion Follow askedDec18,2019at11:10 MiloMilo 5 3 "Lateforfiveminutes"wouldmeanthatafterfiveminutesitisnolongerlate,whichdoesn'tmakesense – nnnnnn Dec18,2019at11:22 5 "Thebuswillbelatebyfiveminutes,"works.Sotoaddressoneofyourquestions,youdon'talwayshavetouse"fiveminuteslate." – PeterShor Dec18,2019at11:31 @nnnnnnIwouldn'tnecessarilysayitdoesn'tmakesense.Ifthebusisrunningbehindschedule,butafterfiveminutesitcatchesup,thenthebushasbeenlateforfiveminutes. – TannerSwett Dec18,2019at15:20 @PeterShorIthinkyoushouldputthatasananswer – Smock Dec18,2019at16:16 @TannerSwett-Ihadthoughtofthat,butthereisn'treallyanypracticaluseforthatconcept,especiallywhentheoriginalsentencewasn'ttalkingaboutthepast,itsaid"willbelateforfiveminutes".Sotowhomwoulditmakesensetoactuallysaythat?Forpeoplewaitingtogetonthebusatanygivenstopit'seithergoingtobelateoritisn't.Itwouldmakemoresensetosay"willbelatetothenext5stops". – nnnnnn Dec19,2019at0:51 Addacomment  |  2Answers 2 Sortedby: Resettodefault Highestscore(default) Datemodified(newestfirst) Datecreated(oldestfirst) 1 Toansweryourquestions. Canweusethephrase"lateforfiveminutes"? Thatsoundsveryoddtome,butgoogling,Iseethatitisusedoccasionally.Thisisn'tgrammaticalinstandardEnglish,butitcouldbeinsomeregionaldialect. Shouldwealwaysuse"fiveminuteslate"? Youdon'thaveto.Youcouldalsosay"latebyfiveminutes." Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredDec20,2019at11:58 PeterShorPeterShor 2,7931313silverbadges1616bronzebadges Addacomment  |  1 Aphraseoftheform"for[amount][timeperiods]"usuallydescribesanongoingprocessthatlastsforthatamountofcontinuoustime.Anexampleis Iwillbeonvacationfor5days. Asinglebusbeinglateisnotacontinuousprocess,sowewouldn'tnormallyuse"latefor5minutes"todescribeit.It'smorecommontosay"lateby5minutes"or"5minuteslate". Wecoulduse"for"todescribeonongoingsituationthat'scausingbussestobelate: BussesalongRoute20willbelateforanhourwhilecrewsareclearingupanaccident. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredDec23,2019at20:12 BarmarBarmar 1,27077silverbadges1010bronzebadges Addacomment  |  Youmustlogintoanswerthisquestion. 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