How to say it took me a certain amount of time?

Question

I want to say "It took me 15 minutes to do this" to someone, but I'm not sure about the Spanish word I'd use for "took" or "to" in this context. Could someone help?

Answer 1

'Tardé 15 minutos para hacer esto'

'Me tomó 15 minutos esto'

Answer 2

Another option is to use tardar:

http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/tardar

• tardó un año en hacerlo she took a year to do it • tardó tres horas en encontrarlo it took him three hours to find it;he spent three hours looking for it;tardó mucho en repararlo he took a long time to repair it

Applying the above examples to your sentence yields:

Tardé quince minutos en hacerlo, or tardé quince minutos en hacer esto.

Thank you, but could you explain why "to" translates to "en" in this sentence? - endlessexplosions, Aug 12, 2014

I (spent/delayed/took) fifteen minutes in doing this. It is just the way things are expressed in Spanish. If you can explain why (in English) you fill something out by filling in the blanks then maybe I will think on it some more. ;) - bosquederoble, Aug 13, 2014

This formulation is not "it took me" literally- it is however how the concept in general is expressed commonly and naturally in Spanish. :) - bosquederoble, Aug 13, 2014

Answer 3

Tardé 15 minutos en hacer esto.

Tardar + en + infinitive verb.

You can also say: Me tomó 15 minutos hacer esto (but not "para hacer esto")

I hope this helps.

Why not "para hacer esto" :) - 003e54f5, Aug 12, 2014

a si perdón mezclé "tomó con tardé" :) - 003e54f5, Aug 12, 2014

Yes, it helps to clarify this expression :) - FELIZ77, Aug 12, 2014