Breakdown of Le peloton a fait un kilomètre en deux minutes.
un
a / an (masculine)
avoir
to have
faire
to do, to make
deux
two
la minute
the minute
en
in (duration of completion)
le peloton
the peloton
le kilomètre
the kilometer
Questions & Answers about Le peloton a fait un kilomètre en deux minutes.
Why do we use en instead of dans for "in two minutes"?
This is the exact difference between en and dans for time! Use en to say how much time it takes to complete an action. Here, it took the riders two minutes to finish the kilometer. Use dans to say when an action will begin in the future. For example, Le peloton partira dans deux minutes means "The peloton will leave two minutes from now."
Could I say pendant deux minutes instead of en deux minutes?
It would sound strange here. pendant is used to say how long an ongoing action lasted ("for two minutes"), focusing on the duration itself rather than the result. Because this sentence is about completing a specific goal (doing one kilometer), en is the right preposition to show the time it took to achieve that result.
Why does the sentence use a fait to mean they rode a kilometer?
What exactly is a peloton?
In general French, it literally means a "platoon" (in the military) or a tight cluster. However, it is most famously used in sports, specifically cycling, to describe the main pack or group of riders in a race like the Tour de France. English actually borrowed this word directly from French for the exact same cycling context!
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