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I am attempting to acknowledge that someone is extremely busy with various things needing his attention. However, I am uncertain of the phrase for this.

Is it:

I acknowledge that you have many demands on your time and thus may not have got round to doing this yet.

or

I acknowledge that you have many demands for your time and thus may not have got round to doing this yet.

and does it make a significant difference?

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  • Please improve the question by showing the context in which these words would be used. Either one might be right or wrong, depending on context. And please let us know what research you have already attempted before you asked here.
    – MetaEd
    Commented Oct 4, 2013 at 14:19
  • In Britain you'd say 'demands on your time' (I know you have many demands on your time, but...)
    – bamboo
    Commented Oct 4, 2013 at 14:53
  • Context, context, context. It's not even clear if this is a noun phrase or a verb phrase, i.e. what part of speech demands is supposed to be.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Oct 4, 2013 at 21:05
  • - demands upon [rather than on] your time = you are very busy, perhaps from your own will ; golf, dinner, bridge, then a concert ... / - demands from your time = you are solicited to grant some time for an interview, a survey, a new task ...
    – ex-user2728
    Commented Oct 5, 2013 at 17:30

2 Answers 2

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  • demands upon [rather than on] your time = you are very busy, perhaps from your own will : golf, then body-building before dinner, bridge, eventually a concert ...

  • demands from your time = you may be already busy, but are however solicited to grant some time for an interview, a survey, a new task ...

Yes, it makes a difference

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  • The question is asking about the difference between "on" and "for"; not "upon" and "from".
    – MrHen
    Commented Oct 9, 2013 at 21:30
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In American English, "demands on your time" is the commonly used phrase. Grammatically, "demands for your time" would be correct (and actually would make more sense), but it's just not used.

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