1. He read the book in 5 days.
2. He read the book after 5 days.
3. He read the book within 5 days
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What does #1 mean,#2 or #3?
Does 1 mean it took 5 days for him to read the book? Or does it mean it took 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 4 days,or 5 days to read the book? When he finished reading the book for two days, can we say as in sentence 1?
#1 means it took him 5 days to read the book. In other words. He finished the book in 5 days.
#2 means he waited 5 days to START reading the book. It doesn't mean he finished reading the book from what I can tell.
#3 probably means he finished reading the book in LESS Than 5 days. It does not specify anything more thn that.
*than
Bill is right. #3 means any length of time UP TO five days. He could have read the book in one afternoon for all this sentence tells us. Bill explains #1 and #2 very well. :)
It took 5 days for him to read the book.
In sentence 1, "He read the book in 5 days," it means that it took him a total of 5 days to finish reading the book. This implies that he started reading the book and completed it within this time frame.
Sentence 2, "He read the book after 5 days," suggests that there was a specific period of time, possibly unrelated to reading the book, and after that time had passed, he started reading the book. It doesn't provide specific information about how long it took him to finish reading the book.
In sentence 3, "He read the book within 5 days," it means that he completed reading the book within a time period of 5 days. This implies that it could have taken him less than 5 days to finish reading the book but not more than 5 days.
To summarize:
- Sentence 1: He finished reading the book in a total of 5 days.
- Sentence 2: There is a time period of 5 days before he started reading the book.
- Sentence 3: He completed reading the book in a time frame of 5 days or less.
Regarding your second question, when he finished reading the book within two days, it does not exactly match the description in sentence 1. We usually use "in" when referring to the exact time frame as mentioned. In this case, you could say "He read the book in two days" or "It took him two days to read the book."