Learn French: J'ai écouté ce mantra pendant une heure et demie. - I listened to this mantra for an hour and a half.

J'ai écouté ce mantra pendant une heure et demie.

I listened to this mantra for an hour and a half.

Breakdown of J'ai écouté ce mantra pendant une heure et demie.

Questions & Answers about J'ai écouté ce mantra pendant une heure et demie.

Why is demie spelled with an 'e' at the end here?

In French, when demi comes after a noun, it agrees in gender with that noun. Since heure is feminine, demi becomes demie. If it came before the noun, connected by a hyphen, it would stay invariable (for example, une demi-heure).

If I listened for two and a half hours, would demie become plural?

No, it stays singular. When demi follows a noun, it agrees in gender but never in number. You would write deux heures et demie.

Why is there no word for 'to' after écouté, like in 'listened to'?

Unlike English, the French verb écouter directly takes an object without a preposition. You just say écouter quelque chose (to listen to something), so you never add a word for 'to' after it.

Could I use pour instead of pendant to mean 'for an hour and a half'?

You should use pendant here. In French, pendant describes a duration of time (how long an action lasted). Pour is generally restricted to projecting an intended duration into the future, like 'I am leaving for a week' (Je pars pour une semaine).