副詞long的若干用法限制

◆long用作副詞時，原則上只用于肯定句和疑問句。如：

—How long will it take to get there?  到那兒需要多長時間?

—It won’t take long. 沒多長時間。

英語一般不說：It would take long. 可考慮改為將：

It would take a long time. 那樣會需要很長時間。

在日常會話中 (for) a tong time常被 (for) ages替代。如：

I waited for ages. 我等了好長時間。

It took us ages to get there. 我們花了好長時間才到那兒。

◆但是，long的比較級和最高級longer和longest卻可以不受限制地使用。如：

It took longer than I expected. 花得時間比我預料的長。

No one can say how much longer the strike will last. 誰也說不出罷工還會持續多久。

Women, generally speaking, live longer than men. 一般說來女人比男人活得長。

Which type of battery lasts longest? 哪一種電池使用壽命最長?

◆另外，帶有修飾語的long，如too / so+long或long+enough結構可表示肯定語氣。如：

Could she have been waiting so long? 她能等得這么久了嗎?

Gone from home so long, they joyously embraced their mates of boyhood. 他們久離家鄉，高興地擁抱他們的兒時伙伴。

They might have found it impossible to have lived together so long, had not a particular circumstance occurred. 如不是情況特殊，他們是不可能長久住在一起的。

Don’t bother to read all these papers. It would take too long. 不要費事看所有這些文件了，那會花太多時間。

The bread baked too long. 這面包烤的時間太長了。

This route to Boston takes too long. There must be another route that is shorter. 這條到波士頓的路線費時太多了。一定會有一條較短的路線。

I’ve been working here long enough. Time to get a new job. 我在這里工作時間太長。該換個新工作了。

My own view is that this kind of store, these kinds of supermarkets, have been around long enough for us to get used to them. 我自己的觀點是，這類店鋪、這種超市存在的時間夠長了，我們可以適應。