I want to express simply that some time had elapsed. Is the following correct?
It was passed 10 minutes.
Are there any alternatives?
Phrase Request – How to Say that Some Time Had Elapsed?
phrase-request
Related Solutions
So, the situation is that both person A and person B have brought things to hand out, and both have spent hours on those things, not knowing the other was also doing it; and person B's handouts are clearly superior to person A's?
Then at this point where Person B sees person A realizing that A's efforts are completely overshadowed, B is feeling that it is unfortunate that A wasted all that time doing something that turns out fruitless. Either there is empathy involved (B feels bad because he knows that A feels bad) or there is not (B merely regrets the lost opportunity to have A be doing something useful, or B is happy to outshine A).
If there is some level of empathy involved (and since person B feels "apologetic", it seems that there must be some), then either "felt bad for" or "felt sorry for" would be appropriate and idiomatic.
There is a word leeway, but I don't believe it's an answer to my question.
Correct, leeway is not the right word. Leeway is defined as "the amount of freedom to move or act that is available" and is a noun which is often applied to signify a specific movement. For example, the deadline is 15th August but we have 2 days leeway either side.
Found another one — sufficient time margin, but still doesn't sound like the best option.
Agreed, this can be used, but is very formal and sounds like something in a legal document or a report.
No hurry. We have plenty of time.
Does indeed imply that one can sit back and do nothing because there is plenty of time.
I would use phrases like
- This is not the top of the list but does need to be addressed soon
- This is important but can wait for a short time
- We do have some time to spare but please stay on this and report progress
- We have sufficient time to ensure we do a thorough job
- We have bought some time in the short term
- This is not urgent but does need to be looked at in the near term
It would also help to be specific, for example,
- This is urgent (how urgent, what is the impact?)
- This needs to be done in the next 2 weeks (what is the timeframe?)
Best Answer
is the grammatically correct form. Another way to say it is:
There are undoubtedly other ways of noting the passage of a specific number of minutes, but these are the two that come immediately to my mind.
To use the past tenses, you can say:
Which form you choose depends on context. Your sentence has no context.