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It took two hours for her to finish her homework

It took her two hours to finish her homework.

It took two hours for her to finish her homework.

Q: I know #1 is correct and I guess #2 is also correct/natural. What is your opinion?

  • sentence-structure
  • phrasal-verbs
  • adverbial-phrases

Jasper's user avatar

They're equally correct and natural. The difference between them is the subtle nuance of how much responsibility is attributed to her.

In the first one, "it took her two hours to do X", it sounds as though she's directly responsible for the amount of time that passed.

Here's a way to use that nuance for irony, in a case where the amount of time is your choice:

It took him two days to text me back! I guess my question scared him.

In the second version, "it took two hours for her to do X", you get the opposite nuance, a sense that there were factors beyond her control.

Here's a sentence where you'd use that, because there's clearly no responsibility implied:

It takes two years for a spaceship to travel to Mars. What a massive distance!

Finally, there's also a third version that seems to put the responsibility (or at least the cause) on the other party:

The homework took her two hours to do. I'm going to call her teacher and tell him it's too much.

It's important to note that in practice, people aren't excessively careful about which wording to use, and the focus of responsibility can easily be changed by intonation, emphasis, tone, and so on.

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it took me two hours to do my homework

  • Learning Disorders
  • Too Much Time Doing Homework
Hi, I have always had a very hard time trying to concentrate on doing my homework. It takes me about 6 hours to do something that should take just 1 (not even exaggerating). I get great marks in all my classes, I can zoom through math problems super quick, but when I have to write an essay or give complete answers for questions, it takes me way longer than it should. For answering questions in science, I have to read the question over and over again until I can be sure I haven’t missed anything. I feel that my work has to be perfect or else it’s just not good enough. I put more pressure on myself than anyone else does. I have always struggled with spelling but I have never been diagnosed with a learning disability. I also suffer from anxiety (again I haven’t been diagnosed with anything). Is it possible that I might have a learning disability? Maybe it’s related to the anxiety? Is there anything I can do to help focus and get my work done quicker? var googletag = googletag || {}; googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot( '/22836344208/Article_Top_300x250', [300,250], 'gpt-ad-8315842314292-0' ) .addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.enableServices(); googletag.display( 'gpt-ad-8315842314292-0' ); }); Ad Thanks, Cal
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It is interesting that something that can be viewed as a disorder under one set of circumstances can also be viewed as a good coping mechanism at other times. What I mean is that, unless I am mistaken, your perfectionism helps you achieve very high grades in school. In the study of science, this would be considered very good.

At the same time, you find yourself spending more time at homework that you feel you should. I want to point out that the word, “should” also varies as to it’s meaning and that depends on the context. If your career goals include work in the sciences, whether it’s medical or other, most people would tell you that you are not spending too much time. The field of science is very competitive and success depends on real academic achievement.

Nevertheless, you are not comfortable with the time you are spending nor with your level of anxiety.

It is entirely possible that you have a learning disability, especially in light of the many spelling errors in your email question. Don’t feel bad a out that because it’s merely a symptom. If you do indeed have a learning disability, it might account for your level of anxiety when doing school work and with the amount of time you spend studying.

Therapists are Standing By to Treat Your Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Health Needs

Explore Your Options Today

You have several options open to you: 1. You could go to the counselling department at your school and discuss your problem with them. They will have you tested and make recommendations based on the results. 2. You could see a psychologist, discuss the problem and he will have you tested and referred for training to help you deal with the disability and the anxiety. 3. I know some people who went to the “Sylvan Learning Center”and see what they may have to offer.

Mainly, you really have to get yourself diagnosed so that you know what you are dealing with and so that you can take the correct actions.

You are a good student and the idea is to not let anything, such as a learning disorder or anxiety, interfere with that.

Best of Luck

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Takes me a really long time to do my homework

In late high school, I found it very easy to procrastinate my deadlines, which in retrospect was horrible because I went to an early college. This left me time for extracurriculars, video games, socializing, and it felt good. But these days in college, I'm getting into my major classes and finding I'm taking an extremely long time to do a lot of my homework. In particular, I'm in my school's computer science weeder course that's notorious for giving out an 8 hour project each week. It's somewhat impossible to do well in this class without routinely going to office hours (the class is taught in a lecture hall so we don't really get experience from going to the class) and we routinely have to "figure things out on our own". Except we aren't really taught in a way that makes us problem solvers at this point beyond having complete knowledge of the collections we use, so the only way to get through the assignments is to (illegally) work with other students (which I can't do cause I'm sorta shit at making friends in the lecture), or go to the makeshift tutorial center that's comprised of 2 TAs with a queue that takes like 30 minutes to get through (our professors don't wanna see us personally). Enter me: toward the end of my high school my work ethic decreased even though I was able to maintain a good enough GPA for my college apps. Nowadays, it takes me waaaaay longer than 8 hours to finish projects because of how easily I get stuck on them, and it's not only demoralizing for my projects, it's also impeding on my ability to keep up with my other classes. The only classes I can really enjoy this semester are discrete math for csc (which is a deliberate cakewalk), and diffEQ (it's not even a class I have to take, I just find it fulfilling).

Why am I like this? Why is extrapolating the procedure from the instructions so difficult for me? When I came to college I was so excited to be a programmer and eventually work with AI, and now I'm so burned out from classes that I don't even explore programming on my own or go to hackathons and shit.

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I take two hours to do my homework every day.

  • Thread starter brian&me
  • Start date Jun 4, 2018

brian&me

brian&me

Senior member.

  • Jun 4, 2018

1. It takes me two hours to do my homework every day. 2. I take two hours to do my homework every day. I wonder if both of the two sentences are idiomatic. Thanks in advance.  

Loob

Thanks, Loob. I'd also like to know if I could say this: my homework takes me about two hours everyday .  

  • Jun 5, 2018

Thanks, Loob. I wonder if I could say I take two hours on my homework every day .  

That doesn't sound as natural. You could say "I spend two hours on my homework..." or "I spend two hours doing my homework..." "Spend" doesn't mean the same as "take" but in this sentence I believe you can use them interchangeably.  

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COMMENTS

  1. It Takes Me Twice as Long to do My Homework : r/Advice - Reddit

    As per the title, I've consistently experienced an issue in which homework takes me two-to-three times as long to do as anyone else. Despite taking much longer, I very rarely get significantly better grades than anyone and I am semi-frequently not getting the best grades for assignments in any class. Today I did a DiffEQ math assignment ...

  2. It took two hours for her to finish her homework

    In the first one, "it took her two hours to do X", it sounds as though she's directly responsible for the amount of time that passed. Here's a way to use that nuance for irony, in a case where the amount of time is your choice: It took him two days to text me back!

  3. Too Much Time Doing Homework - MentalHelp.net

    I have always had a very hard time trying to concentrate on doing my homework. It takes me about 6 hours to do something that should take just 1 (not even exaggerating).

  4. it always takes me hours to do assignments that should be ...

    You can do it. You just need to tighten up your study habits and find a study method that works for you. You came this far to ask for advice on getting better so your attitude is right, just get rid of the distractions.

  5. Takes me a really long time to do my homework : r ... - Reddit

    But these days in college, I'm getting into my major classes and finding I'm taking an extremely long time to do a lot of my homework. In particular, I'm in my school's computer science weeder course that's notorious for giving out an 8 hour project each week.

  6. I take two hours to do my homework every day.

    That doesn't sound as natural. You could say "I spend two hours on my homework..." or "I spend two hours doing my homework..." "Spend" doesn't mean the same as "take" but in this sentence I believe you can use them interchangeably.