A hundred [of] years ago ?

Question

Hello, guys. Recently I received my essay and I noticed that I had this error:

I wrote: 'A hundred years ago, nobody had a television set, ...'

Is this OK? Because my teacher suggested that I should write 'A hundred OF years ago'... And of course, I forgot to ask her when she returned it to me, silly me

Nona the brit · Accepted Answer

I'm sorry to say that you were right and your teacher was wrong, unless you misunderstood what she was saying. I'm sorry as it casts some doubts on your teacher's abilities.

A hundred years ago- correct

A hundred of years ago - absolutely incorrect.

We only use the 'of years ago' when it is plural, for example hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago. If you are simply talking about a specific time - one hundred years ago - then you can't say 'of'' in the middle.

If you were to say 'Hundreds of years ago people didn't have tv sets' it might be correct but it isn't really what you mean. It sounds as though tv sets did start appearing several hundred years ago, certainly not in fairly recent history. It's like saying the ancient egyptians didn't have tv sets. True but rather obvious. It doesn't make any sense to express it in that way.

By saying 'a hundred years ago, nobody had a television set' it is clear that tvs were invented early in the 20th century.

Marius Hancu · Answer

Please do NOT post twice:
A hundred [of] years ago ?!
If you post as Anon, WAIT, it takes several hours to show up.

Yoong Liat · Answer

I remember answering the same question earlier. Why do some members enjoy posting more than once on the same topic? Is it to get as many views as possible from different members?

A hundred [of] years ago ?

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