Waiting times or waiting time?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi there, just wondering why people always say waiting times. Is that correct?

I think sometimes time is countable, like a thousand of times, many times, two times a week. Does “waiting times” countable?

Please advise.

2

Hi,
period of time [singular, uncountable] a period of time during which something happens or someone does something:
Dustin wanted to spend as much time as possible with his family.
Therefore,
I think “waiting time” is correct.
Regards,
Morteza

3

“Waiting time” can be countable or uncountable.

In these sentences it’s uncountable:
“People won’t sit still for that much waiting time.”
“Waiting time needs to be reduced in government offices.”

However, you can have various waiting times of various lengths, so you get sentences like this:
“Waiting times can vary from 2 to 15 minutes.”
This would mean various incidences of waiting time, and not waiting time in general.

Nonetheless, “waiting time” could also be made uncountable in that sentence:
“Waiting time can vary from 2 to 15 minutes.”

Everything depends on whether you think of waiting time as one big thing, or as something cut into smaller segments in different situations.

4

Hi Dear Jamie(K),
I really thank you for your clear and nice explanations.
Regards,
Morteza

5

Thanks everyone for the details info.

Have a nice day!

6

Hi, I still have a question, if the sentence is, “…in that case, people would have a longer waiting time”. I think that would be no “s” in this situation, right? I just wondering if longer means a particular length in different situations.

Thanks in advance!

7

“Time” cannot be plural there, because it has the article “a”.

8

Thanks Jamie. But then if without ‘a’ means it can be plural. I am in doubt if can longer mean a different situations.

9

The article “a” means “one”. You can’t have “one times”, but you can have “one time”. You can’t have “a times”, but you can have “a time”. Or you can have “times” without “a”.

You made a big mistake in your message, because you wrote “a different situations”. If you have the article “a” (=one), you can’t follow it with the plural of “situation”.

10

My bad. Thanks for correcting me.

Okay, let me re-write my sentence. “…in that case, people would have longer waiting times”. I actually want to know if that makes sense. In that case, time should be with “s” or without “s”.

Thanks dear.

11

Could anyone please kindly help? Thanks.