0
Liveinjapan Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

Make this long a stay

NASA says Mr Wakata is to join the mission and stay at the International Space Station for about 4 months. He will be the first Japanese to make this long a stay in orbit.

Can I say 'make this long stay' here?

Thanks
LiJ
  

Top answer

Hi LiJ The sentence basically means that 'others have had long stays, but none as long as this one'. If you remove the 'a', you change the meaning a bit. In my opinion, an element of comparison is lost, and the suggestion is that he is 'the only Japanese to make a long stay'.

— Yankee

  • Hi LiJ The sentence basically means that 'others have had long stays, but none as long as this one'.
  • If you remove the 'a', you change the meaning a bit.
  • In my opinion, an element of comparison is lost, and the suggestion is that he is 'the only Japanese to make a long stay'.
  • "This long a stay" means the same thing as "a stay that is as long as this" or "such a long stay".
  • You'll often find this sort of structure with the word 'so', but it is not unusual to find it with 'this' and 'that'.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

3 Answers
0
Hi LiJ

The sentence basically means that 'others have had long stays, but none as long as this one'.

If you remove the 'a', you change the meaning a bit. In my opinion, an element of comparison is lost, and the suggestion is that he is 'the only Japanese to make a long stay'.

"This long a stay" means the same thing as "a stay that is as long as this" or "such a long s
0
0
I got it! Emotion: smile Thanks, Amy.
0
0
For some reason, I think expressions like these are so cool.Emotion: stick out tongue Maybe because they sound so native or different I guess.
0

Related Questions