gio73 ha scritto:anonymous_f3d38a ha scritto:
I haven't seen a videogame in (at least) six years!
I am not as good as Ghira... But I would have written
for
"for" and "in" both exist. Using Google I get 1.25 million hits for "haven't done it for years" and 591k for "haven't done it in years".
But with "hasn't" instead of "haven't", "in" is more popular. Curious.
If Swan says anything about this, I haven't managed to find it yet. Swan ("Practical English Usage") is generally
very useful for situations like this.
I think I'd spontanously say "for". My immediate reaction is that maybe "in" is informal and/or more likely to be used in speech than writing, but that could be nonsense.
Adding "site:bbc.co.uk" cuts the numbers of hits down to 4 for "for" and 1 for "in". Maybe the contraction is to blame?
Some people don't like contractions in formal writing. (This forum isn't formal.)
"not done it for years" gets 1 hit on the bbc vs 0 for "not done it in years".
One to watch/listen out for. Who uses "for" and "in"? When are they speaking or writing? I'll try to pay attention to this for a while.