Le film dure deux heures.

Questions & Answers about Le film dure deux heures.

The current lesson is about pendant (for), so why isn't it used here to say 'for two hours'?
With the verb durer (to last), you do not need a preposition to introduce the length of time. Just like in English where you can say 'The film lasts two hours' instead of 'lasts for two hours', French skips pendant here. You simply say dure deux heures.
What verb does dure come from?
It comes from the regular -er verb durer, which means 'to last'. Since le film is a singular noun (equivalent to 'it'), we use the third-person singular form, dure.
Doesn't heures mean 'o'clock'? How do I know it means 'hours' in this sentence?
The French word heure (and its plural heures) is used for both the time of day ('o'clock') and a duration of time ('hours'). You can tell which one it is from the context: Il est deux heures means 'It is two o'clock', but because this sentence talks about how long something lasts (dure), deux heures means a duration of 'two hours'.
How is deux heures pronounced? Is there a liaison?
Yes! Because deux ends in a consonant letter (x) and heures starts with a silent 'h' followed by a vowel, you must make a liaison. The 'x' in deux is pronounced like a 'z', connecting the two words smoothly so it sounds like 'deu-zeur'.

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