native english speakers, do these two sentences have the same meaning?

Question

Hi.

I'd like to know the difference between these two sentences.

1) if i collect all of my tears "of" a thousand years
2) if i collect all of my tears "for" a thousand years

There are 2 of's in 1st sentence, so i want to use 2nd one instead.
Would it be ok?

Thank you for reading!

Thanks for kind answers! You helped me a lot. :D

Answer 1

Not quite dear.

RoVale has submitted the best reply, in my opinion.

Indeed, the first sentence implies that your tears have been collected for 1000 years while the second sentence refers to the future, i.e., you might be planning, hence the use of the term "if", to have your tears collected or to collect your tears for the next 1000 years.

You see the difference?

Do you understand the nuance?





Hope it helps!

Answer 2

The meanings of these sentences are a little different. The first implies that the tears have already been collected while the other implies that you will be collecting them for the next thousand years. As for which one you want to use, it depends on how you want to use them in your writing. They both are correct but they don't mean quite the same thing.

Answer 3

No, they do not have the same meaning

1) if i collect all of my tears "of" a thousand years
You are collecting your tear that thousand year old.

2) if i collect all of my tears "for" a thousand years
You are going collecting your tear for thousand years.

Answer 4

Not quite the same. The first sentence sounds more past tense. The second sentence sounds more future tense.

Answer 5

you're trying use prepositional phrases...

all "of my tears" and "of a thousand years"
all "of my tears" and "for a thousand years"
("all" is an adverb)

both phrases need to relate back to the verb, which is "collect".

"collect of a thousand years" doesn't make sense.
"collect for a thousand years" DOES make sense.