A long ten minutes, a long year, a short five minutes, etc...
English translation: the speaker's personal perception.
| 13:45 Jan 31, 2009 |
| English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO] Idioms / Maxims / Sayings / English colloquialisms | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||
|  Selected response from: Nesrin United Kingdom Local time: 15:28 | ||||
Grading comment
| |||||
| SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 +7 | the speaker's personal perception. |
| ||
| 4 +3 | seemed as if it lasted longer than it actually did |
|
Answers
12 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +3
peer agreement (net): +3| a long ten minutes, a long year, a short five minutes, etc... seemed as if it lasted longer than it actually did Explanation: Usually, people say this when the time felt as if it had passed slowly (perhaps they had endless work to do, or were bored...) In the case of a shorter period of time, like minutes, it can sometimes be meant more literally: "that was a long 10-minute coffee-break!" — implying it was perhaps more like 15 minutes. clearly this couldn't really usually be applied to 'year', since 'a year' is 'a year'... 'short', on the other hand means the opposite: the time seemd to fly by (perhaps we were enjoying ourselves, or the work was going well...). Likewise, can also have a literal meaning: "You said you'd be back to pick us up in 5 minutes, but that was a very short 5 minutes, we're not ready yet!" — suggesting it was maybe only 3 minutes. It's all about perceived time, and how that corresponds — or doesn't — to actual time. |
| |
