Log inSign up

Le cycliste a rattrapé le peloton en une heure.

Le cycliste a rattrapé le peloton en une heure.
The cyclist caught up with the peloton in one hour.
From Lesson 242:Time prepositions of duration (en, dans)·French

Questions & Answers about Le cycliste a rattrapé le peloton en une heure.

Why does the sentence use en une heure instead of dans une heure to mean "in one hour"?
We use en to express the amount of time it takes to complete an action. It took the cyclist a duration of one hour of riding to catch the pack. If you used dans, it would express when an action starts in the future (for example, Il va rattraper le peloton dans une heure means he will catch up one hour from now).
Why isn't there a word for "with" after rattrapé?
In English, we say "catch up with", but in French, the verb rattraper takes a direct object. You simply "catch" the thing you are chasing without needing an extra preposition. That is why it is directly followed by le peloton rather than using a word like avec.
Since cycliste ends in an -e, shouldn't it be a feminine noun?
Not necessarily! Nouns describing people that end in -iste are usually the exact same for both masculine and feminine (similar to touriste or journaliste). The article le is what tells us that this specific cyclist is male.
Is peloton just a cycling term in French?
While English mainly uses it for a group of cyclists, in French un peloton can refer to any dense pack or group, including a cluster of runners or even a military platoon. In fact, the English word "platoon" comes from this exact French word!

Learn Le cycliste a rattrapé le peloton en une heure and more in French

All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.

  • ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
  • ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
  • ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free
Start learning French →