Saying for so much time / for so long


I want to know how to form the sentence "I looked at the water for so long
that people thought I was crazy" but I'm not sure of how I can express "for so
long" in Japanese I thought of 私はおかしかったと思われたほど水を見た, and it looks like it means
"I looked at the water to the extent that people thought I was crazy" but I
want the time part to appear in the sentence. How to say "...for so much
time/for so long that..."?




Generally speaking, English "as much _A_ as _B_ " and "so _A_ that _B_ " can
be translated as _B_ ほど _A_.

Thus,

> I looked at the water **for so long that people thought I was crazy**.  
>  私は **人からおかしいと思われるほど長く** 水面を見つめていた。 (Note: Japanese has relative tense)

Similar expressions:

  * ～ほどの時間
  * ～ほどの間
  * ～ほど長い時間 (means really "long")
  * ～ほど長い間
  * and all ほど above can be replaced by くらい（ぐらい）

However when English writers write such a sentence, they often want to tell
"people thought I was crazy" part. So practically this kind of sentence is
likely to be given with a translation like:

> 私は長く水面を見つめすぎて、人からおかしいと思われた。

