When I talked to my friend today I found that he has in his college the same course that I have. I wanted to ask him about the length(?) of his course (since our course is two two weeks and I wanted to know if his is the same) and then I found myself in hilarious situation, therefore I'd like to know what's the acceptabble way to ask the correct question in the context:
I know that "course" also means a period of time. Then I asked:
a) "What's the course of your course?"
But I had more choices:
b) "How long (+time?) is your course?
c) How long your course takes?
d) What's the period of your course?
Which of the choices, is the correct, if any?
Best Answer
I'm not aware of a meaning of "course" that is "a period of time". Its main meanings are "a sequence of events" and "a path or route". So I would not understand "what is the course of your course?" as you intended.
You can use "duration", but it is rather formal, the most likely expression would be "How long is your course?".
Now, "How long your course takes" is not a complete sentence, but "How long (does/will) your course take?" is possible. Also "period" suggests the time between repeats. Most courses don't have a period, so I would not understand the last question.