Let’s be honest, sometimes English can be confusing. Sometimes when learning English it is easy to mix up words and phrases or be unsure when to use them.
I often hear German speakers who are learning English make mistakes with the phrases ‘to last’ and ‘to take’ when talking about time and duration.
Take a look at the examples below. Hopefully they will make things clearer for you.
We use ‘to last’ when we are talking about fixed durations. The process, activity or state of things continues for a specific amount of time.
E.g. The game lasts 90 minutes.
E.g. The meeting is scheduled to last 2 hours.
We use ‘to take’ when the length of time can vary (due to external factors). We specify how much time was needed or used up in completing the activity.
E.g. There was a traffic jam so it took me over an hour to get to work.
E.g. The jury took just over 5 hours to find the defendant guilty.
Here is an example to combine both verbs:
The exam lasted 3 hours but it took me 10 minutes to understand the first question!
Have fun learning English!
Louise