FOR vs. DURING

Good morning.

It is quite common for English students to confuse the prepositions FOR and DURING when talking about periods of time or events.

DURING is used: before an activity to indicate that a parallel action is happening at the same time as that activity.

FOR is used: before a period of time to indicate the duration of an activity.

Example 1:
I fell asleep during the film because it was so boring. (The sleeping happened at the same time as the film.)

Example 2:
I feel great! Last night I slept for 9 hours straight.*

*Notice that you CANNOT say "I slept during 9 hours..." This is incorrect.

Example 3:
Olga: Are you tired?
Alex: Are you kidding? I slept for almost two hours during the film. I feel great. Let's go have a drink.

I hope you do lots of fun things during the weekend. I'll see you on Tuesday, since Monday is a holiday in Barcelona.

Have a great weekend!