Name: English. Tutor Nick P Lesson (336) Common English Error With Cold or Flu
Uploaded: 2019-06-05T17:28:22.000Z
Duration: 2 min 56 s
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Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 336. The title of today's lesson is "Do

The imperative

not say that you caught a cold or the flu for a week.' Okay. So let's take a look

Modal verbs - A2

at the note here. You cannot say that you caught a cold or the flu for a period of

time. So in the title I just use the week is an example,  but it doesn't really

matter.  You shouldn't say I caught a cold for

five days or for three days or for six days all of them. This would all imply

that you in the process of catching a cold the whole period of time. So let's

continue here. So because that would imply,  imply or suggest you were in the

process of catching cold for the stated period of time. So the  period of time doesn't

really matter but... so you shouldn't say it that way. All right. So let's take a look

here with the X. Of course this is wrong.  I caught the flu for five days. No. You

would never say that because again that would mean that you were in the process

of catching it for five days. Usually by the time you realize you got it. You got

it already. You have it so you're not in the process anymore. So this is why you

wouldn't say this. So I gave a number of correct ways that you could say it with

the check.  I had the flu for five days.  This is probably the best.This is the

easiest. This is what you mean.  It means you caught the flu and you were trying to

recover from it or get over it for five days. So it's like one here. You can say I

caught the flu five days ago. That you could say. You can't say I caught the flu

for five days but you could say I caught the flu five days ago.

it took me five days to get over the flu,  or it took me five days to recover from

the flu. So get over and recover here have the same meaning. This is how long

it took you to get your health back. And the last one here.  I was sick with

the flu for five days. This is another way that's

okay. You could say it that way too.  All right great. All right. So we just

give the same sort of example with cold here because this pattern follows both.

So again with the X this would be wrong.  If you said I caught a cold for ten days.

No.  you can't  say that. Again it would mean

that you're in the process of catching a cold. Again,  by the time you know,  you

got the cold you already have the cold. it's already in your body. So you're not

in the process of doing it. So again with the check all of these would be correct.

I had a cold for 10 days. Yeah. Perfect.  It's very simple,  very easy I caught a

cold ten days ago. All right. So you could use  caught and then ago,  It took me

ten days to get over this cold or it took me ten days to recover from this

cold. And the last one here.  I was sick with a cold for ten days. All of those

ways are okay. Anyway,  I hope you got it.  I hope it's clear. Thank you for your time.