The play was five years in the making - meaning

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

Does "The play was five years in the making" mean "The play took five years to make" or "Five years were needed in order to make the play"?

The sentence is partly made up by me.

Thank you.

 

[CarloSsS]

NOT A TEACHER

It means that the play took five years to make.

 

[emsr2d2]

It might not have needed five years to make it. Perhaps the people making it were incredibly slow workers. All we know is that it did take five years to make it. Out of curiosity, when you say "make the play", do you mean "write the play"?

 

[SoothingDave]

Hello everybody!

Does "The play was five years in the making" mean "The play took five years to make" or "Five years were needed in order to make the play"?

The sentence is partly made up by me.

Thank you.

I don't know what you think the difference is between "The play took five years to make" and "Five years were needed in order to make the play"?

They mean the same thing to me.