How long does it take…..?

When talking about the duration of time to do an activity, we say “How long does it take + infinitive…?”

It’s a common way to ask about the time needed to do various things.







Travel from point A to point B. 
- How long does it take to fly from Chicago to Rome? - present tense
(It takes eight hours.)
- How long did it take to get to the office from home? - past tense
(It took 15 minutes.)

Travel somewhere via different modes of transportation. 
- How long does it take to get to the university by bus? - present tense
(It takes 35 minutes to get to the university by bus.)
- How long will it take to arrive in the city center on foot? - future
(It will take 40 minutes on foot.)

Doing anything
How long will it take for the tree to grow fruit? - future
(It will take five years.)
How long did it take to build the Great Pyramid of Giza? - past tense
(It took 20 years.)

You don’t always have to be precise with the time. You can use these phrases: 
- It didn’t take long / It won’t take long (It didn't take long to read that book.)
- It takes a long time / It took a long time /It will take a long time (It took Carlo a long time to finally graduate.)

You can personalize these kinds of sentences too: 
- How long did it take Simona to get to the office from home? - past tense
(It took her 15 minutes.)
- How long will it take you to arrive in the city center on foot? - future
(It will take me 40 minutes on foot.)
- How long did it take slaves to build the Great Pyramid of Giza? - past tense
(It took 20 years and thousands of slaves.)


In conclusion: if we are talking about time, we use the phrase “How long does it take…?”, “How long did it take…?”, “How long will it take…?”