hi there my name is Emma and in today's
video I am going to teach you a very
very important grammar point I'm going
to teach you about a mistake many many
students make so I don't want you to
make this mistake so let's get started
in this video I am going to teach you
the difference between how long how long
time how much time and how many times
students often confuse these four
expressions so let's look at some of the
differences so I have here a question I
actually have three different sentences
here one of them is right two of them
are wrong okay so let's look at these
together the first one how long time
have you been here the second one how
long have you been here and the third
one how many time have you been here so
one of these is correct which one do you
think is right if you said how long time
have you been here that's incorrect
this one it's wrong number two how long
have you been here if you said this one
you are correct this is right what about
the last one how many time have you been
here this one is also wrong but we can
make it right if we add an S
so let's go over each of these so you
can find out why some of these are wrong
and why some of them are right to get
started let's look at how long so when
we ask somebody how long we are asking
them about time okay we want to know the
amount of time for something so for
example how long have you been here I
want to know maybe how many minutes or
maybe I want to know how many hours
you've been here okay if I ask you how
long have you lived in England an answer
would be a number that has to do with
time you might say five years four weeks
two months okay so when we ask how long
the answer and what we want to know is
about time minutes hours days months
weeks years okay so let's look at
another example how long have you lived
in Spain the answer is going to be
something about time three years okay
you'll notice not always but many times
we use how long with the present perfect
it's possible to use it with the past
tense the simple past and also the
future but you will often see it with
the present perfect how long have you
been married
how long have you worked here
how long have you studied English okay
so a lot of the questions you probably
want to ask somebody you're probably
going to use how long have you okay very
common way we ask questions so what
about how long time can I say that also
can I say how long time have you lived
in Spain or how long time did you sleep
on the plane
No
if you're asking how long you don't need
the word time okay we never say in
English how long time many students say
how long time but this is not correct
the correct expression how long not how
long time all right so now let's look at
how much time and how many times okay so
we've talked about how long which is
good how long time which is bad now
let's look at how much time I think this
is why many students get confused
I think they confuse how long and how
much time and they as a result they
create how long time which is incorrect
so how much time actually is pretty much
the same as how long when you ask how
much time you want to know about the
amount of time you want to know about
maybe it's minutes days weeks months
years it's the same as how long okay so
for example how much time does it take
to get to work I could also say how long
does it take to get to work they have
the same meaning or how much time have
you waited how much time have you been
in line for okay so the answers to these
questions are going to be about time how
much time does it take to get to work
for me it takes one hour how much time
have you waited in line I've waited in
line five minutes okay
so for both how long and how much time
they're pretty much the same in
conversation we usually use how long
okay you can use both but native
speakers are more likely to use how long
so if you're
to the side do I use how how much time
or how long how long is more natural and
it's more common okay
but they mean the same thing now here's
another area many students get confused
how many times how many times is not the
same as how much time the words how and
time are the same but these have
different meanings first before I tell
you what this means I want you to notice
the word time and time here with how
much time is there an S no there is no s
but for how many times there always is
an S we don't say how many time we say
how many times with an S so this has a
different meaning than this this is
different because when you ask someone
how many times you want to know the
number of events not the time the number
of events so you're counting one two
three four five okay so for example you
might say how many times did you watch
the movie Titanic some people watch the
movie once some people watch the movie
twice some people watch the movie a
hundred times maybe even 500 times okay
so how many times did you watch the
movie Titanic how many times did you eat
today maybe if you had breakfast lunch
and dinner you ate three times how many
times have you been to the museum I've
been to the museum five times okay so
this for how many times you're counting
and your answer it can be once twice
after twice we often say three times
with an S also four times okay we can
also say one time two times that's
possible too so here's one more example
how many times will you watch this video
will you watch it one time two times
three times a hundred times I hope not
but I hope you watch this video and if
you need to watch it multiple times it
can help you really with your
understanding okay so just to go over
what you learned in this video we talked
about how long meaning we're talking
about time minutes hours days we talked
about how much time which has the same
meaning but is less common we talked
about how many times which is not the
same and which means you're counting
okay and we also talked about how long
time which has never never correct in
English we never say how long time okay
so it's very good to practice these
ideas and these concepts so I invite you
to come visit our website at wwlp.com
there you can do a quiz where you can
practice these to make sure you really
understand the differences between these
expressions until next time take care
you