As far as I know "take too long " and "take a long time " are different. And I once read two examples on Internet they considered to be incorrect.As follows :
1)Let's plan on using email to inform the client, because regular mail (takes a long time) .
2)Please expect for the project to be completed by 2013 because creating an index (takes too long).
Correct Ans: 1) takes too long 2) take a long time
My question is, why those are incorrect? what's the difference? Would anybody give me detailed explanations?
Best Answer
Take a long time is an idiom, a special meaning of take referring to duration of some event.
It's one version of the
Event
takeDuration
idiomTake too long uses the same durational sense of take, but the too marks it as a Negative.
Too
Adjective
means 'soAdjective
thatNot S
, whereNot S
is some negative outcome.Thus take too long means 'take so much time that something is wrong'.
means that it was slow, or it was late, or the drivers honked their horns at it, or the speaker was irritated, or something -- details are not always specified. But something was out of expectation.