"Der Ausbau nahm mehrere Stunden in Anspruch."

Translation: The expansion took several hours.

[Soglio]

What exactly does "in Anspruch" add here? Given the English translation, wouldn't the German sentence be sufficient if it did not include "in Anspruch"?

[myra]

Your question made me realize that the English verb "take" has two meanings. The temporal sense is expressed as "dauern" or "in Anspruch nehmen" in German, the other meaning (like to take away or take with) would just be "nehmen". "Der Ausbau nahm mehrere Stunden" is too awkward without "in Anspruch" at the end.

[Soglio]

Oh, that is interesting. Thank you!