The variations of in/for the last few days

Question

1.I was not able to gain access to Internet in last a few days.

2.I was not able to gain access to Internet last a few days.

3.I was not able to gain access to Internet in a few days.

4.I was not able to gain access to Internet for a few days.

5.I was not able to gain access to Internet the last a few days.

6.I was not able to gain access to Internet in the last a few days.

7.I was not able to gain access to Internet for the last a few days.

8.I was not able to gain access to Internet for last a few days.

9.I was not able to gain access to Internet in last few days.

10.I was not able to gain access to Internet last few days.

11.I was not able to gain access to Internet in few days.

12.I was not able to gain access to Internet for few days.

13.I was not able to gain access to Internet the last few days.

14.I was not able to gain access to Internet in the last few days.

15.I was not able to gain access to Internet for the last few days.

16.I was not able to gain access to Internet for last few days.

Questions:

A:Which ones are correct ? Could you possibly give me the numbers please?

B:Is there any difference between the sentence which are correct ones.

C:Which one/ones should I choose in order to imply clearly that I am not able to access constantly whole last days OR I was unable to access sometimes but I had this problem only for a few days.

D:If I use present perfect tense, does it imply I am still unable to access to Internet. And which ones for the best for present perfect. "I have been unable to access to Internet ........."

E:Can using past instead of last in these sentences change the meanings?

Thank you

Answer 1

A. As Jim said, you need to say "the internet"**. After fixing that, it leaves only 13, 14 and 15. (because all the ones with "last a few" or "past a few" are ungrammatical.)

Note that in all instances you could, if you wish, shorten the sentence by saying simply "access" (yes, it is used as a verb) rather than "gain access to"

**Note also that some people capitalize Internet while others do not. Ask what "house style" is about this at your workplace.

Suppose you fix 12 by adding "a" before "few". (actually, you could fix other ones, too, but some would become duplicates) Slo we'll focus on 12,13,14 & 15.

B. 12 indicates an indefinite time ago (maybe last week, maybe last month—you should say which.) For example, if it happened last week: "I was unable to access the internet for a few days last week." (this still does not indicate WHEN you regained access, unless you specify an actual range of dates;e.g., "from Wednesday through Friday")

13, 14 and 15 are equivalent; they all say that you recently lost access, but now (today) can access the internet again.

C. 13, 14, and 15 imply continuously unable. To say it was only sometimes, you could say "I lost access to the internet intermittently [during the last few/the last few/for the past few/in the last few] days."

D. If you use the present perfect "I have been unable..." it implies that the problem continues to now. "I have been unable to access the internet for the last few days."

E. Yes, "past few days" does not usually include today, whereas "last few" typically does. But the tense of the verb has more influence, so "have been unable...for the past few days" might be understood the same as "have been unable...for the last few days."; i.e., as including today. But to be clear, if you want include today, I suggest you use "last" as in D.

Or else say "I have been unable....SINCE [last Friday, yesterday morning, whenever]. This unambiguously includes up to now.

Maybe you could now cut down your list to only those you are still unsure about. There should only be a few, not 15.