5.125 'for' for length of time

The preposition 'for' indicates how long something continues to happen.

• Is he still thinking of going away to Italy for a month?
• The initial battle continued for an hour.
• This precious happy time lasted for a month or two.
• The machine was completely immobilized for ten minutes.
• We were married for fifteen years.
• I didn't speak for a long time.
• She would have liked to sit for a while and think.

You use 'the' instead of 'a' when the period of time is already known, with seasons, periods of the day, and 'weekend', or when you modify the time word with words like 'past', 'coming', 'following', 'next', 'last', or an ordinal.

• Tell Aunt Elizabeth you're off for the day.
• We've been living together for the past year.
• For the first month or two I was bullied constantly.
• For the next few days he remained prone on his bed in his quarters.
• Put them in cold storage for the winter.
• I said I'm off to Brighton for the weekend.

Remember that you do not use a determiner with special periods of the year.

• At least come for Christmas.

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'For' can also be used with specific time expressions to indicate the time when something is to be used, not how long it takes or lasts.

• Everything was placed exactly where I wanted it for the morning.

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'For' can also be used in negative statements when you want to say that something need not or will not happen until a certain period of time has passed. 'Yet' is often added.

• It won't be ready to sail for another three weeks.
• I don't have to decide for a month yet.