both two years of

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "both two years of" is not correct in standard written English.
It is redundant because "both" implies two, so it should not be used with "two years." Example: "I have both two years of experience in marketing" should be corrected to "I have two years of experience in marketing."

⚠ May contain grammatical issues

News & Media

Academia

Formal & Business

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

1 human-written examples

There should have been an account of why the recent dearth of capital investment has not been succeeded by a splurge as departments use both two years of underspend and next year's budgeted increase simultaneously.

The Guardian - Business

Human-verified similar examples from authoritative sources

Similar Expressions

59 human-written examples

On the evening of January 5 , 1993 Tracie Reeves and Molly Coffman, both twelve years of age and students at West Carroll Middle School, spoke on the telephone and decided to kill their homeroom teacher, Janice Geiger.

Harvard University

Mr. Gore's comments about Mr. Castro reflected both seven years of White House frustration in dealing with Cuba and election-year politics at a time that Florida's 25 electoral votes are being desperately fought over by the two candidates.

The New York Times

REDMOND, Wash., Oct. 5 — On a whiteboard in a windowless Microsoft conference room here, an elegant curve drawn by a software-testing engineer captures both five years of frustration and more recent progress.

The New York Times - Tech

Her 'students' are Bipul and Nahid, both five years of age.

Unicef

Both provide two years of full funding for graduate research, the Rhodes at the University of Oxford and the Marshall at any university in the United Kingdom.

MIT Technology Review

Both programs require two years of work experience before matriculating.

Harvard University

Those patients got both diseases, within two years of one another.

Johns Hopkins University

But they controlled both houses of Congress in the first two years of both Clinton's and Obama's administrations.

Huffington Post

Discussions however remained inconclusive, and both rulers died within two years of the embassy.

Wikipedia

Both oysters were about two years of age.

BMC Genomics

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

Avoid using "both" when specifying a duration of "two years". The word "both" is redundant here as 'two' already implies a quantity of two.

Common error

Do not use "both" to modify "two years" because "both" implies there are two of something, making the phrase redundant. Instead, simply use "two years".

Linguistic Context

The phrase "both two years of" functions as a modifier attempting to specify a duration. However, according to Ludwig, it is grammatically incorrect due to the redundancy of "both" when "two" is already present. The primary intent is to indicate a period of time.

Expression frequency: Rare

Frequent in

News & Media

41%

Academia

25%

Science

23%

Less common in

Formal & Business

8%

Wiki

3%

Encyclopedias

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, the phrase "both two years of" is considered grammatically incorrect because the inclusion of "both" is redundant when specifying "two years". Ludwig's analysis confirms this redundancy, suggesting that it's better to simply use "two years of" or other similar alternatives to avoid this error. While the phrase is found across various contexts, its incorrectness makes it unsuitable for formal writing and should be avoided in professional or academic settings.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

two years of

Removes "both" for grammatical correctness, clarifying a duration.

a couple of years of

Replaces "two" with a more colloquial term for a similar timeframe.

two years' worth of

Adds "worth of" to emphasize the amount or value accumulated over the duration.

a period of two years

Rephrases to highlight the duration as a specific time period.

spanning two years

Focuses on the duration as something that covers a length of time.

for a duration of two years

Emphasizes the length of time as a continuous period.

over a two-year period

Similar to "a period of two years" but places 'two-year' as a compound adjective.

two-year

Shortens the reference with a hyphen, appropriate when used as an adjective.

within two years

Indicates that something happens before the end of the two year period.

in the span of two years

Stresses the time frame in which something occurs.

FAQs

Why is "both two years of" considered grammatically incorrect?

The phrase "both two years of" is grammatically incorrect because the word "both" is redundant when referring to "two years". The number "two" already implies that there are two of something, making "both" unnecessary and repetitive. It's better to simply say "two years of".

What are some correct ways to express the same idea as "both two years of"?

Instead of "both two years of", you can use phrases like "two years of", "a couple of years of", or "a period of two years". These options are grammatically correct and convey the same meaning.

In what contexts might I mistakenly use "both two years of"?

You might mistakenly use "both two years of" if you're trying to emphasize that there are two distinct years being referred to. However, even in such cases, it's better to rephrase the sentence for clarity without using "both". For example, instead of "both two years of experience", you could say "two years of experience" or "two distinct years of experience".

Is there a situation where using "both" with a time period is correct?

Yes, "both" can be used correctly with time periods when referring to two separate instances or categories. For example, "both the first and second years of the study" is correct because it specifies two particular years out of a possible larger set, but it is not correct if you want to say "two years of study".