last and take

No difference in meaning. 'Took' suggests that the speaker had hoped for a shorter meeting.

lasted four hours: the duration of the meeting was of four hours
took four hours: the meeting consummed four hours (of our time)

but MM is right, no big difference here.

Hi,

Thank you both for your replies.
Could you please also help me check if 'take' can be used here instead of 'last' in the sentences blow I got from dictionary?

1.'The hot weather lasted/(took) for the whole month of June.'

2.'Each lesson lasts/(takes) an hour.'

3.'The ceasefire didn't last/(take)
long.'

4.'The hot weather lasted/(took) until

Take is OK in #2 only. In #3, this would work: Arranging the ceasefire didn't take long. I suppose that 'take' refers to some sort of controllability or effort-- weather (#1, #4) is not under our control.

Hi MM,

Thank you very much for your clear explanation. I have a couple of more examples and could you please help me to check if 'take' and 'last' are interchangeable here?

1.The film lasts/takes two hours.
2.The explorer's journey lasted/took five years.

I think they could here. Do you think so?

----------------

It took the writer a year to write h

Yes, yes and yes. Looking at your sentences, my feeling is that 'take' is used when the speaker is more concerned with the length of time, where 'last' is more a mere observation.

It only takes 10 minutes = It was a short time, whoopee!
It took an hour to get to the station = Ugh! It was a very long time.

Of course 'it takes + time unit' is somewhat idio

Hi, Mister Micawber,

Thank you a lot for your great help.