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Is "I'll call him ten minutes later' correct?

 
 
Reply Tue 5 May, 2009 09:54 am
I'll call him ten minutes later.

Is the sentence correct?

Thanks.
 
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Reply Tue 5 May, 2009 10:25 am
I'll call him in 10 minutes.

You might say "I called him 10 minutes later" when both the call and the event 10 minutes before were in the past.
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Reply Tue 5 May, 2009 10:34 am
Depends on the context. If, say, you know you'll learn something by noon tomorrow and want to convey the answer to him, you'd say "I'll call him ten minutes later.", i.e. at 12:10.

If you mean you're going to call him in ten minutes from right now, you'd say, "I'll call him in ten minutes" (NOT "ten minutes later").
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View Profile JTT
 
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Reply Tue 5 May, 2009 02:12 pm
As you've seen, Ms Tan, English native speakers don't use 'later' like this in this type of situation. Perhaps it's a direct translation from your own language and it seems natural, but it isn't.

Japanese speakers also make this "mistake".

We also use "___ minutes/hours/days/weeks/months/etc. from now".
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Reply Tue 5 May, 2009 08:18 pm
Thanks, Jack and JTT.
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