"many times" or "for many times"?

Question

I have been struggling whether or not using "for" in front of "many times". Some explanations on the internet say "for many times" is British English and "many times" is American English. Also, "for many times" is more formal than "many times". Are these explanations correct?

My son's English teacher at high school insisted no "for" in front of "many times" in any circumstances. Is she right?

Would you kindly help me on this matter?

Here is an example:

Mark has been to Hong Kong for many times, so he decides not to visit there on vacation this summer.

Also, if I use a number instead of "many" in this phrase, is that OK, too? Here is an example:

After Jessica failed for 10000 times, she created the talented robot.

compared with the following example:

After Jessica failed 10000 times, she created the talented robot.

What's the different between them?

Also, here are 2 more sentences that I read from the exam paper and an English magazine:

I have visited there for many times since 2001. (from the exam paper)

The baseball player has pitched for 42 games in a row. (from an English magazine)

Are they grammatically right or not? Hope you can guide me.

If "for many times" that kind of usage is acceptable, for the sake of my better understanding, please give me one or two examples about "for many times" or "for+(number)+(nouns)". Thank you so very much.

Answer 1

I don't believe that "for many times" is grammatical in any variety of English.

^{(Well, unless you contrive an example where "times" is the plural of "a given time of occurrence" and there's an elided "of the": "Class times are listed below. For many times, you can click the link for more information.")}

You can use "for" with an ordinal: for the first time, for the 20th time, for the last time. Notice that it's always time, not times, in these examples. You can also use "for" with a duration: for 100 years, for the summer, for a long time.

"Many times" behaves the same way as "100 times" or "just a few times", and adding a "for" is not grammatical.

Mark has been to Hong Kong many times.
Mark has been in Hong Kong for two years now.

After Jessica failed 10000 times, she finally created a working robot.
After Jessica failed for the 10000th time, she tried a different approach.

Answer 2

The word "for" is used for duration. For instance, "I was in Hong Kong for three months". It's not appropriate for counting the number of instances, rather the duration of instances. "The baseball player has pitched for 42 games in a row" can be seen as grammatically correct if "42 games" is viewed as a length of time, a meaning that is supported by the phrase "in a row". If it were 42 non-consecutive games, then there wouldn't be a particular duration that corresponds to the 42 games, so "for" would not be correct. We can use "for" any time the instances can treated as defining a continuous block. For instance, "I've been a contractor for four jobs", "In this chess tournament, I've been black for three games", "The freeway is two lanes each way for five exits".

Answer 3

I think "many times" is the abbreviation of "for many times" . Prepostion "for" is used for counting the amount of distace,period or time.

Answer 4

In the first example, the correct sentence should be:

Mark has been to Hong Kong many times.

The second example should be:

After Jessica had failed 10000 times, she created the talented robot.

The "fail" action happens before the "create" action. Therefore, we should use past perfect tense.