structure · neutral

it took + somebody + + time + to + V

Band 4-5speakingtask2

States how long something required someone to do (how much time someone needed to do something).

Examples

“It took me two hours to write the report.”

“It will take us about ten minutes to get there.”

“It took her ages to understand the instructions.”

Band 8 sentence

“It took me several months to collate all the data properly, but the result was worth the effort.”

Collocations

  • take somebody ages to do something
  • take sb + time + to + V

Word family

take (somebody) time to V verb phrasetake + time + to V verb phrase

Common mistakes

It took me two hours finishing the report.→It took me two hours to finish the report.

It took two hours me to finish it.→It took me two hours to finish it.

Say it for a higher band

5spend + time + V-ing→6take + time + to V (mix errors)→7+it took + somebody + time + to + V

Synonyms

spend + time + V-ing

Easily confused

spend + time + V-ing

“I spent two hours finishing the report.”

Related words

look forward to + V-ingtry + V-ing / try to + Vfor + somebody + to + Vavoid + V-ingbe likely to + Vbegin / start + V-ing / to + Vprevent + somebody + from + V-ingturn out + to + V

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In Gerunds & infinitives

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