Far or a long way?

Far and a long way both describe something at a great distance:

• I can’t see very far without my glasses on.
• San Francisco is a long way from New York.

Far is used mostly in negatives and questions:

• There’s a Thai restaurant not far from here.
• How far is your house from the station?

A long way is used mostly in affirmative statements but we also use it in questions and negatives:

• A: How long did it take you to get here today?
• B: I left home at half past ten this morning.
• A: Six hours. That’s a long time, isn’t it?
• B: Yeah. It’s a long way.
• Not: It’s far.
• A: We have to go to Cathy’s place first to pick her up.
• B: Is it a long way from here?
• A: No, it’s not far.

Far is used in affirmative statements with words such as so, too, enough and as. These expressions can refer to time as well as distance:

• So far*, we have sent four letters to the Council about the litter on the street.* (time until now)
• Six months is too far ahead. The restaurant only takes bookings for up to two months in advance.
• Where we live is far enough away from the city. I don’t want to move any further away.
• From here, you can see as far as the ocean.

Far is also used in comparatives to mean ‘much’:

• The roads here are far better than in our country.
• Food costs far more in the UK.

We can use by far before a superlative adjective to add emphasis:

• With more than seven million people, London is by far the biggest city in England – the second city, Birmingham, has just over one million.

We use the phrase has come a long way to mean ‘has improved or developed’:

• Our team has come such a long way. We lost our first game 5-0!

We can use the phrase to be a long way off (+ noun or -ing form) to refer to a long time:

• The holidays are a long way off.
• We*’re*** a long way off retiring yet, Marlene.