You are required to give an explanation (A) for your conduct (B) within two days of the receipt of this letter. (C) No error (D)
This sentence was asked in my exam under the tag of error spotting questions. Is the sentence correct? I am sceptical for part C, I googled for the phrase within two days of the receipt of this letter and found a result in Google Books where the preposition used was from instead of of, so the correct sentence should be with from instead of of. Am I correct or is it fine with of as well?
Best Answer
The usual use of within is "within (measure) of ", and is used for both time and space. Eg Within 200 metres of the building, or within ten minutes of departure.
Having said that, in the case of time, there is an ambiguity: does it mean, "in the interval of time starting at the point", or "in the interval of time before and after the point"?* It nearly always means the first, because - as in your example question - it wouldn't make sense for it to include the time before. But sometimes people use "from" to make it completely clear.
But I would say "No error" here.
*This question became important in 2015 when some statistics were published in the UK about people dying within six weeks of having a benefit withdrawn: it turned out that the publication meant "six weeks before or after", but people interpreted as "six weeks after" - see this blog, for example.