I have been to America three times.
Vs
I have been to America for three times.
Is for necessary here?
Or is the use of preposition futile here?
asked Jun 20, 2018 at 10:10
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3By the way, we don't put spaces before question marks in English.– user230Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 15:00
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2Subrat, what @snailboat just told you is something that has been mentioned before. As people edit your questions, please learn from those edits. By the time you've asked your 50th question, you should not be making the same formatting mistakes over and over again.– J.R. ♦Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 15:14
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2 Answers
You can go to America for three days, three weeks, three months, but you can't go for three times.
I have been to America three times.
Last time, I stayed for three weeks.
answered Jun 20, 2018 at 10:40
In your example
for
is not used. "for" is used to express duration of time, not number of times.
I have been in America for two years.
For the past three times I've been to America, it has rained.
During the past three times I've been to America, it has rained.
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7I don't like either of your last two sentences; I think they read better with no preposition at all: The past three times I've been to America, it has rained.– J.R. ♦Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 14:57
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You would also use "for" to express the purpose: "I went to America for a job", or "I went to get a job". But "for to get a job" is incorrect; you may hear or see it as a vernacular or for humour, but it's not correct.– CCTOCommented Jun 20, 2018 at 16:52
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1Neither of those sentences are grammatical to me either. Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 17:19
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@J.R. surely with 'for' it means that it rained for the entire trip (which seems unlikely, but is how I would understand the sentence), whereas your correction just states that it rained at least once– Au101Commented Jun 20, 2018 at 18:30
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1@CCTO "for to" plus infinitive was also common in earlier times, as in "and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn."– phoogCommented Jun 20, 2018 at 21:53