So today I was chatting with an oversees friend of mine and I asked him:
How much more time are you going to stay online?
Just after asking, it seemed to me that it is not quite a natural structure. So I want to clear the doubt.
Is this construction correct? Is "much more" conveying the sense I want to? Or it sounds stilted?
Best Answer
Just for a bit of variety, I'm going to suggest the sentence IS grammatical.
I'm not as expert in the exact parsing of sentences as other people here, however it appears to me that the sentence passes all the basic tests of grammar. The most important test is 'can it be easily and unambiguously comprehended by anybody'. I believe the answer is undoubtedly 'yes'.
As a native speaker, would I use those exact words? Perhaps not. My 'gut feeling', is that I would have said 'How much longer ...', but that seems very idiomatic to me, and less logical and clear when analysed than the sentence you actually used. The question refers to quantities of time, so why not actually say so?
That's an admittedly messy answer, but I think one has to accept that good written English is not always a matter black and white rules.