Learn Dutch: Wij koken de soep anderhalf uur. - We boil the soup for one and a half hours.

In Dutch, anderhalf is a special word that means "one and a half". You use this single word instead of translating "one and a half" literally word-for-word. For two and a half, you would say tweeënhalf, but 1.5 gets its own unique vocabulary word.

Why does the sentence use the singular uur instead of the plural uren?

In Dutch, standard units of measurement like time, distance, weight, and money stay singular when they follow a number. Because anderhalf acts as a number here, uur remains singular. This is different from English, where we pluralize to say "hours".

The English translation says "for one and a half hours". Why is there no word for "for" in the Dutch sentence?

When expressing how long an action takes (duration), Dutch typically drops the preposition. You just state the duration directly, so Wij koken de soep anderhalf uur is perfectly complete. Translating "for" by adding voor here would sound unnatural to a Dutch speaker.

Could I change the word order and put anderhalf uur before de soep?

Yes, you can! Standard Dutch word order usually puts Time before the Object, so Wij koken anderhalf uur de soep is very common. However, because de soep is a specific object (using de), it is also perfectly correct to place it before the time phrase, as this sentence does.