Hi Peace,
Each sentence brings with it a different meaning.
I spend hours to write.
Tense: simple present
Function: a recurring action (eg a habit)
Your hobby is to write and you take hours to do so
I spent hours to write.
Tense:simple past
Function: a past action
At some time in the past, you wrote for hours. It also ended in the past.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Lance
Linguee
linguee.es › ingles-espanol › traduccion › spent+time.html
spent time - Traducción al español – Linguee
Muchos ejemplos de oraciones traducidas contienen “spent time” – Diccionario español-inglés y buscador de traducciones en español.
Plain English
plainenglish.com › home › expressions › spend time
Spend time | How to use it in English | Learn English expressions
November 21, 2024 - To 'spend time' is to dedicate time to a purpose. Think of it like "spending" money out of a budget. You have a limited amount of time, so you decide how to spend it, or how to dedicate your time.
Videos
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CMU
opi.cs.cmu.edu › show › time_spent
InfoType: time spent
Carnegie Mellon University | Privacy Policy
spend or spent hours?
I have a grammar question:
spend hours to write?
spent hours to written?
Hi Peace, Each sentence brings with it a different meaning. I spend hours to write. Tense: simple present Function: a recurring action (eg a habit) Your hobby is to write and you take hours to do so I spent hours to write. Tense:simple past Function: a past action At some time in the past, ... More on italki.com
7
0
June 5, 2017spend (time) at | WordReference Forums
hi all: I only know the sentence structure" spend in doing something" and "spend on something". But i read a sentence in a book, i.e "The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished". so, is "spend (time) at" also a grammatically correct expresion? thanks! More on forum.wordreference.com
Spend time doing something VS spend time to do something | UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum
Click to expand... Both are correct but different in meaning. To spend time doing something means you use the time available to you for something. I spent a lot of time (at the station) seeing you. -- It means you were there and was seeing her in the meantime. More on usingenglish.com
Is there an app that can help me track time spent in the day?
I don't have an app to recommend, but I want to share something funny that struck me while reading your post. Folks who love to budget likes to track their money inputs and outputs. Tracking expenses especially tends to be perceived as a lot of annoying work. Example - YNAB app encourages inputting expenses as they happen, which is like about 10 to 20 seconds per transaction. Shorter if you know how to do shortcuts. I don't do YNAB, but I have spreadsheets. Take bills, for example, it would take me maybe 15 seconds to input in my spreadsheet per bill. For me, it's second nature, but for other people - it's too annoying. Over time, I've accepted that maybe budgeting has to be trained starting in childhood; otherwise, it's very hard to get (for example) tracking expenses to be perceived as easy. Then, there's you folks who like tracking your time spent. I think technically - that's more tracking to do than money in-outs. The funny thing that occurred to me is that time tracking makes budget tracking seem very easy by comparison. More on reddit.com
25
11
April 21, 2025What is the difference between "having spent time" and "after spending time"?
"Having spent time" emphasizes the completed nature of the action and its direct influence on a subsequent event. "After spending time" simply indicates a sequence of events, without necessarily highlighting a strong cause-and-effect relationship. For instance: "Having spent time in the library, he felt prepared for the exam" versus "After spending time in the library, he went home."
ludwig.guru
ludwig.guru › s › having+spent+time
having spent time | Meaning, Grammar Guide & Usage Examples | ...
What are some alternatives to "having spent time"?
Alternatives include phrases like "after dedicating time", "after investing time", or "after allocating time", depending on the specific context and nuance you want to convey.
ludwig.guru
ludwig.guru › s › having+spent+time
having spent time | Meaning, Grammar Guide & Usage Examples | ...
How can I use "having spent time" in a sentence?
"Having spent time" is used to indicate a completed action or experience that influences a subsequent event or understanding. For example: "Having spent time in Italy, she developed a passion for Italian cuisine."
ludwig.guru
ludwig.guru › s › having+spent+time
having spent time | Meaning, Grammar Guide & Usage Examples | ...
Ludwig
ludwig.guru › s › having+spent+time
having spent time | Meaning, Grammar Guide & Usage Examples | Ludwig.guru
This is supported by Ludwig examples where the phrase sets the stage for a subsequent event or state. ... In summary, "having spent time" is a versatile participle phrase used to provide context by indicating a completed action or experience before the main action of the sentence.
Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › us › dictionary › english › spend-time
SPEND TIME definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary
We learned how to be professors by spending time around professors, as students and then as assistant professors.
TheFreeDictionary.com
idioms.thefreedictionary.com › spend+time+in
Spend time in - Idioms by The Free Dictionary
To be in some building, town, country, etc., for some amount of time. I spent a lot of my childhood in the library, learning about as many things as I could. We're only spending a couple of days in Rome, so we have to be very pragmatic about ...
IMDb
imdb.com › title › tt28456759
Time Spent (Short 2023) ⭐ 8.9 | Short, Drama, Sci-Fi
July 21, 2023 - With Louis Blain Russell, Stephen Samson, Eleanor Griffiths, Tiffany Boysell. Nathan and his girlfriend are struggling with the cost of living crisis in the UK, so when Nathan gets a chance to interview for a dream job, he jumps at it.
YourDictionary
yourdictionary.com › home › dictionary meanings › spend-time definition
Spend-time Definition & Meaning | YourDictionary
Spend-time definition: To dedicate time to an activity.
Top answer 1 of 4
1
Hi Peace,
Each sentence brings with it a different meaning.
I spend hours to write.
Tense: simple present
Function: a recurring action (eg a habit)
Your hobby is to write and you take hours to do so
I spent hours to write.
Tense:simple past
Function: a past action
At some time in the past, you wrote for hours. It also ended in the past.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Lance
2 of 4
1
For me as a native speaker with imperfect grammar, I suggest the following:
Both versions are correct. The first is a general statement that you regularly write for many hours (I spend hours writing [something]). The second version is in the past tense (I spent hours writing [something]). Therefore it has already finished.
Finally, I would use the gerund (-ing) rather than the infinitive (to write) in both of these sentences unless I were to say something a bit different e.g. "It took me hours to write that" but.this is a very different sentence structure. I don't fully understand the grammar behind it, perhaps your teacher can help. Otherwise you might just be able to learn it as a phrase and work from there.
Therefore I would actually say something like:
I spend hours writing my English homework. (A regular activity)
I spent hours writing my English homework. (A past activity)
It took me hours to write my English homework. (Past tense again)
There are many other options depending on the tense that you want to use.
Good luck!
WordReference
forum.wordreference.com › english only › english only
spend (time) at | WordReference Forums
March 11, 2012 - In America, we spend time on things/activities, in doing things, or at places, but in the UK you can spend time at places and at activities/things as well. And not to contradict, but you can use "on" even when you're not trying to show disapproval. "Wow! That's a great mosaic you made. You must've spent a lot of time on it, and it really shows!"
WordReference
wordreference.com › english-spanish dictionary › spend time
spend time - English-Spanish Dictionary - WordReference.com
spend time - Translation to Spanish, pronunciation, and forum discussions
Thesaurus.com
thesaurus.com › browse › spend-time
49 Synonyms & Antonyms for SPEND TIME | Thesaurus.com
abide, affect, dally, frequent, glom, hang about, hang out, haunt, linger, live, loiter, reside, resort, roam, swell, tarry, waste time
Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › dictionary › english › spend
SPEND | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
2 weeks ago - We would spend every meal time entreating the child to eat her vegetables. ... For the past month he's been spending all his energy trying to find a job. They continued firing until all their ammunition was spent (= there was none of it left).
UsingEnglish.com
usingenglish.com › forums › learning english › ask a teacher › popular topics
Spend time doing something VS spend time to do something | UsingEnglish.com ESL Forum
January 14, 2009 - Click to expand... Both are correct but different in meaning. To spend time doing something means you use the time available to you for something. I spent a lot of time (at the station) seeing you. -- It means you were there and was seeing her in the meantime.
Wiktionary
en.wiktionary.org › wiki › spend_time
spend time - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
To dedicate time to an activity.
Our World in Data
ourworldindata.org › time-use
Time Use - Our World in Data
November 29, 2020 - The data comes from the OECD and brings together estimates from time diaries where respondents are asked to record the sequence of what they did over a specific day, as well as from general questionnaires where respondents are asked to recall the amount of time spent on different activities on a specific day in the previous week.1
Fiveable
fiveable.me › all key terms › ap psychology › time spent
Time Spent - (AP Psychology) - Vocab, Definition, Explanations | Fiveable
In psychology, 'time spent' refers to the duration one dedicates towards a particular activity or task, such as studying or rehearsing. It's believed that more time spent can lead to better understanding and retention of information.
Engoo
engoo.com › app › words › word › spend-time › zga0ELstQmCjlQAAAACGRA
spend time (【Phrase】use time to do something ) Meaning ...
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/productivity › is there an app that can help me track time spent in the day?
r/productivity on Reddit: Is there an app that can help me track time spent in the day?
April 21, 2025 -
Currently I'm using notes and I do the following: Woke up at 9:00 Morning routine until 9:25 News until 9:40 Assignment #12 until 11:20 Ect...
This doesn't work well as I write from right to left and the notes app is kinda funky with it, and also it makes me spend some time on calculating all these times.
And then at the end of the day I try to separate all of these times (by taking the difference) into a few categories like: essential daily routine (things I can't go without like lunch/dinner, morning routine, shower), study time, breaks and fun (for breaks and for whatever like, anime, video games...) and I also have the category of workout and on rare occasions an outing.
An ideal app would let me input the time I woke up, and would allow me to create these categories on the fly and keep everything in check, and at the end of the day will tell me how much hours were today and show in a pi graph how it was spent, and you can extend this to weeks and months as well.
If you have some other categories ideas as well to be more specific in productiveness I would appreciate it, I was considering having different study categories depending on what I learn (like by course)
Top answer 1 of 13
3
I don't have an app to recommend, but I want to share something funny that struck me while reading your post. Folks who love to budget likes to track their money inputs and outputs. Tracking expenses especially tends to be perceived as a lot of annoying work. Example - YNAB app encourages inputting expenses as they happen, which is like about 10 to 20 seconds per transaction. Shorter if you know how to do shortcuts. I don't do YNAB, but I have spreadsheets. Take bills, for example, it would take me maybe 15 seconds to input in my spreadsheet per bill. For me, it's second nature, but for other people - it's too annoying. Over time, I've accepted that maybe budgeting has to be trained starting in childhood; otherwise, it's very hard to get (for example) tracking expenses to be perceived as easy. Then, there's you folks who like tracking your time spent. I think technically - that's more tracking to do than money in-outs. The funny thing that occurred to me is that time tracking makes budget tracking seem very easy by comparison.
2 of 13
3
Toggle is good