Context: I walked a dog three times today.
“I was walking a dog for the third times today.”
“I was walking a dog for three times today.”
Are both valid expressions?
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1 Answer
I walked a dog three times today.
means that you walked the dog three times, and all three walks happened today.
I walked a dog for the third time today.
means that you walked the dog three times overall, and the third walk happened today. The first and the second walk may have happened today as well, or they may have happened at an earlier time.
Please note that "for the third times" is wrong. This expression only refers to one walk, namely the third one, so you need to use the singular: "For the third time".
"For three times" maybe not technically wrong (I'm not really sure about that part), but at least it feels off.
answered Aug 29, 2021 at 8:42
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@Iloveeverybody You could say "I'm walking a dog for the third time today", if you're just in the middle of the third walk. But you couldn't say "I'm walking a dog three times today", because you can only do one walk at a time, not three walks at the same time. You could say something like "I have been walking a dog three times today", but this feels quite convoluted to me. Commented Aug 29, 2021 at 9:24
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I'm pretty sure that for three times is never be idiomatically acceptable, but it's worth noting that although for twice is equally "invalid", we can't generalise this to say that such "adverbial numeral quantifiers" can never be preceded by the preposition for. It's perfectly natural to say I got it right for once (which has different implications to I once got it right / I got it right once). Commented Aug 29, 2021 at 11:44