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Il y a soixante minutes dans une heure.

Il y a soixante minutes dans une heure.
There are sixty minutes in an hour.
From Lesson 40:Telling time (il est... heure)·French

Questions & Answers about Il y a soixante minutes dans une heure.

Why does it use Il y a when the English translation is plural ("There are")?
In French, the phrase Il y a is a fixed expression that means both "there is" and "there are". Even though soixante minutes is plural, Il y a stays exactly the same! You don't need to change it to match the plural noun.
In the current lesson, heure means "o'clock". Does it also mean "hour"?
Yes! Heure is used for both "hour" (as a length of time, like in this sentence) and "o'clock" (when telling the time on the clock, like Il est une heure). Just remember that for the general concept of "time", French uses a completely different word: le temps.
Why is it une heure and not un heure?
The word heure is feminine, so it takes the feminine word for "a/an", which is une. Because the "h" in heure is completely silent, the "n" from une connects smoothly into it when you speak. It sounds almost like a single word: "oo-neur".
How do I pronounce the "x" in soixante?
The "x" in soixante is actually pronounced like a soft "s" (like in the English word "sun"), not like "ks" or "z". The whole word sounds like "swa-sahnt".

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