The pattern

"It takes" plus a time plus "to" plus a verb says how long something needs. "It takes twenty minutes to get there." "It takes an hour to cook." Put a person in the middle to make it personal: "It takes me an hour to get ready."

The question is "How long does it take...?" and travelers ask it constantly: "How long does it take to reach the airport from here?" For the past, "It took": "It took three hours to get home."

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

  5. The key travel question.

  7. Past: "took".

  9. Patience is needed. Said about learning, healing, trust.

  10. An idiom: both people share responsibility.

Check yourself

1Which question asks about travel time?
2How do you make it personal?
3What is the past form?

Practice · 3 min

Say how long things take. Prompt on the left, one natural sentence on the right.

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Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.