How to construct a sentence

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Nishi-tokyo  #124125  Fri, 05 Aug 05 12:24 PM

I walked two miles.

I walked two hours.

From these sentences, is it possible to make  a sentence like

"I walked two miles two hours," without interposing "for" in front of "two hours"?

  
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goldmund  #124158  Fri, 05 Aug 05 01:56 PM

Dear Nishi-tokyo,

You may say «I walked two miles in two hours».

Kindest regards, Smile [:)]

Goldmund

  
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davkett  #124162  Fri, 05 Aug 05 01:59 PM

Welcome to Englishforums, Nishi-tokyo,

"I walked two miles two hours." is a little too abbreviated for me.  It may be fine in creative writing that uses a 'clipped' literary style.  But for normal use, 'I walked two miles in two hours', or, 'I walked for two hours, a distance of two miles.'  The way you say it depends on what emphasis you want.  Is it distance, is it time, is it rate of walking speed?

  
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Roro  #124181  Fri, 05 Aug 05 02:42 PM
Hello there.
Seems .. paco is not online now. He refered me recently to this thread:

[link]

Please copy and paste, Nishi-Tokyo. Welcome to EnglishForums!
  
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Nishi-tokyo  #124184  Fri, 05 Aug 05 02:48 PM

Thanks to all of you for clarification.

Originally, my question was triggered by another one of purely grammatical nature that I found posted on a website where we Japanese discuss English grammar and something like that.

The question went like this: Assuming that in each of the sentences the preposition "for" is obviously left out behind the verb, then why is it that in the sentence resulting from combining the two, the absence of prepositions looks somewhat odd from a grammatical point of view.

  
Roro  #124197  Fri, 05 Aug 05 03:52 PM
Hello Nishi-tokyo. I'm not competent to explain proper usages of English, but let me add my opinion.

As Goldmund and Davkett say, I think the sentence "I walked two miles two hours" could be naturally understood as «I walked two miles in two hours», «I walked for two hours, a distance of two miles».
(With some intonation or emphasis, maybe...? At least I hesitate to call it 'grammatically odd.')

But, on the other, the following sentence [1] should get a completely different, unusual interpretation, ... I've learned so, at least.

[1] I walked two miles for two hours.
Cf. I ran 100-meters for two hours. ...that is, he ran, repeatedly.

I'm sorry if I couldn't make myself clear. (and I have to warn you: I may be wrong!). By the way where's that site, seems interesting.
  
Roro  #124239  Fri, 05 Aug 05 05:20 PM
I should have mentioned another, a bit more natural interpretation of [1], than 'repeated-event' reading.

We can understand [1] as 'at every time within some two-hours-interval, I was engaged in some activity ┈ that is, 'walking-two-miles' activity.
In this interpretation, [1] doesn't say whether I did walk two miles in the end or not. There's a difference between [1] and the sentence〖I walked two miles in two hours〗.

I think there's a parallel phenomenon in Japanese.
  
Nishi-tokyo  #124256  Fri, 05 Aug 05 05:58 PM

Hi, Roro:

Thank you four your insightful comments on the question.

On a note slightly related to what you've suggested, I should have pointed out first and foremost that the point the questioner seemed to be stressing about it all was that the omission of the preposition "for" in front of words describing time or distance is often permissible in terms of grammar in sentences like:

"I've lived here for ten months," or "I've lived here ten months;"

and

"I ran for five miles this morning," or "I ran five miles this morning."

I have no idea which souds more natural in either case, though.

  
Roro  #124261  Fri, 05 Aug 05 06:25 PM
Hello Nishi-tokyo. Neither do I. ...But from what I gather, I'd say: the versions without 'for' are fairly prefered, not only permissible.
I'm not sure whether you got an answer or not. If not, I'm sorry for my interruption; I'd recommend you .. if you don't mind .. to restate your question. I will be interested in your question.

With my best regards,
  
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