Feb. 27, 2022
Question
I saw a sentence written by a Chinese person in a WeChat group.
“5 days later, I will come back to China”
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way should be “in 5 days, I will come back to China”
But why is "5 days later” incorrect? Doesn’t it have the same meaning as “in five days”? I hope someone can tell me. Thank you very much.
Correction Settings
Question
I saw a sentence written by a Chinese person in a WeChat group.
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way shwould be “in 5 days, I will come back to China”
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way would be “in 5 days, I will come back to China”
Or just "it was wrong, and it should be". Not sure why - I've never noticed this grammar before!
But why is "5 days later” incorrect?
Doesn’t it have the same meaning as “in five days”?
I hope someone can tell me.
Thank you very much.
Feedback
It seems to me that we use "before", "after" and "later" to talk about two events that are *both* disconnected from the present.
So, "I bought that book five days before the movie adaptation came out", or "the movie came out five days after the book", or "the movie book came out, and five days later so did the movie". All happening completely in the past. But if we want to connect to the present: "I bought the book five days ago, and now the movie is coming out" or "I just bought this book, and then saw that in five days a movie's coming out".
So if this person was saying that, for example, today is Monday and on Saturday they'll come back to China, then it has to be "in five days" because it's connected to the present. But you *can* use it to talk about future plans: "on my birthday I'll be in New York, but five days later I'll be back in China".
March 1, 2022
Thank you very much.
Question
I saw a sentence written by a Chinese person in a WeChat group.
“In 5 days later, I will come back to China”
“In 5 days I will come back to China”
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way should be “in 5 days, I will come back to China”
But why is "5 days later” incorrect?
Doesn’t it have the same meaning as “in five days”?
I hope someone can tell me.
Thank you very much.
Feedback
This kind of question should really go here: https://community.langcorrect.com/c/language-questions/10
It is, after all, not a journal entry you wanted corrected, but a question about language usage.
"In 5 days" points at an event in the future.
'5 days later" just expresses a duration, so to speak, which, in most cases, lies in the past.
March 1, 2022
I only access this website on my phone, so it’s hard for me to find the question area. I am sorry for that.
|
Doesn’t it have the same meaning as “in five days”? This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
Question This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
I saw a sentence written by a Chinese person in a WeChat group. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
“5 days later, I will come back to China”
“In 5 days |
|
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way should be “in 5 days, I will come back to China” This sentence has been marked as perfect!
A native English speaker said the sentence was wrong, and the correct way Or just "it was wrong, and it should be". Not sure why - I've never noticed this grammar before! |
|
But why is "5 days later” incorrect? This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
I hope someone can tell me. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
|
Thank you very much. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
You need LangCorrect Premium to access this feature.
Go Premium