Please explain 要不了多久?

Question

Please help me explain how 要不了多久 is translated into "It won't be long" Literal meaning would be "Could not demand how long?" I am not sure how 多久 works in this context.

Answer 1

In English, we can say "It won't be long until I graduate from college." In Chinese, we can say "要不了多久我就从大学毕业了。" So as you can see, 多久here means "a long time". It is an informal expression that you can use in conversation. In summary, the usage is like this:

要不了多久 + something will happen.

It won't be long until + something happens.

Hope this answers your question!

Xiaohan

Answer 2

What the other answers miss explaining is that here 要 means something like "need" or "take"--in the sense of how much time it will take, how much time is needed. It won't take long; not very much time is needed.

Answer 3

"多久“ can mean "how long" but not in your sentence "要不了多久。” "多久“ in this case means "much longer" -- “it won't take much longer” (it won't be long).