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I have a lot of confusion with "in". Take this sentence:

"I will kill you in 5 seconds."

I see 2 senses:

  • 1st sense: I will kill you in 5 seconds = I am taking my coffee, and 5 seconds later I will kill you.

  • 2nd sense: I will kill you in 5 seconds = I need 5 seconds to kill you, I start at 0..1... I'm killing you... 2...3...4... Almost killed you...5 I killed you.

How to know which sense it is? To avoid the misunderstanding, how should we write it? Maybe I have to use another word than "in" ?

aparente001
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Geoffrey Barthel
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    Context and speaker's intention. I'm going to run a 100-meter race in 2 days probably doesn't mean your meaning B. – Arm the good guys in America May 26 '17 at 14:57
  • So there is no way to say "I'll kill you in 5 seconds" with 2 different words instead of "in" ? Because I always get misunderstandings with those words that imply 2 senses. – Geoffrey Barthel May 26 '17 at 22:21
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    Doesn't your native language contain possibly ambiguous constructions? How do you deal with them? One way might be what is the most expected or likely meaning... However, one can say I'm going to kill you five seconds from now and it means your Sense 1. Or It'll take me five seconds to kill you, which is similar to Sense 2. – Arm the good guys in America May 26 '17 at 22:56

1 Answers1

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You are right, the preposition is in itself ambiguous. As you say, the sentence might mean

In five seconds from now, I'm going to kill you.

Or

I'm going to kill you, and it's going to take me five seconds to do it.

You have to guess the meaning from the context, and ask for clarification if necessary.

Consider:

Do you remember, you told me that your wife says you know a lot?

What I meant was

Do you remember, you told me that your wife says "you know" a lot?

The listener didn't have the benefit of the quotation marks, and was surprised by what I said!

aparente001
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