How long have you been married (for)? [duplicate]
Some personal observations that won't fit in a comment box. Firstly, as a rule of thumb it seems better to use such noun phrase Adjuncts of duration (i.e. those which occur with numbers, e.g. five minutes, three days, a year) with stative verbs, verbs that describe situations and not real actions:
- I've lived here three years.
- I've been in the marines five months.
- I've had this car seven days.
- I've known Ben three months.
- I've only owned this five minutes.
These usages are more common, I believe, in American English than in British English. However, in British English they seem massively improved if there is another preposition phrase after the duration phrase. One example is the word now:
- I've lived here three years now.
- I've been in the marines five months now.
- I've had this car seven days now.
- I've known Ben three months now.
- I've owned this ring five minutes now.
Notice that we shouldn't confuse these duration Adjuncts NPs with temporal NPs functioning as the Complement of a verb. Several verbs take such NPs as a Complement:
- I waited five minutes before leaving.
- I stayed five months at that hotel.
- The film lasted three hours.
Omitting the preposition is acceptable and commonplace in the US:
I have worked here five years.
and without a direct object:
The tree has been growing five hundred years.
EDIT#1
For very short sentences or durations without a specific value, it is more common to include the for
I suffered for years.
We tried for years to get pregnant.
rather than:
I suffered years.
We tried years to get pregnant.