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Distance
Distance (/dɪstəns/) is a numerical measurement of how far apart objects or points are.[1]
Note that in English for distances we use “how far” as a question word, often with "it" as a dummy pronoun, e.g. “How far is it from London to Edinburgh?" Meanwhile, the length of an object may be questioned with “how long,” e.g. “How long is Hadrian’s Wall?”
We also use the demonstratives this/these for proximate referents and that/those for distant referents.
Distances may be expressed in Imperial units (e.g. miles) or metric units, (e.g. kilometres). Students may be unfamiliar with Imperial units if they come from a country where they are not routinely employed.
We may occasionally pragmatically respond to a request for distance with an answer with time, e.g.
- “How far is it?"
- “About 10 minutes.”
