Breakdown of La visite du musée dure deux heures.
deux
two
le musée
the museum
l'heure
the hour / o'clock (f)
durer
to last
la visite
the visit
Questions & Answers about La visite du musée dure deux heures.
Why use visite here to mean "tour" instead of the French word tour?
While un tour is a French word, it is generally used for a physical circuit around something (like le tour du monde for "the tour of the world") or a quick walk/ride. For exploring a museum, city, or monument to see its sights, French prefers the noun une visite. A "guided tour" is translated as une visite guidée.
Why is it la visite du musée and not le musée visite like in English?
In English, we frequently stack nouns together so the first one acts like an adjective (as in "museum tour"). French doesn't do this. You almost always have to link two nouns with de (of). So, "the museum tour" is structured as "the tour of the museum": la visite de le musée, which must contract into la visite du musée.
Could I say prend deux heures ("takes two hours") instead of dure deux heures?
If the event itself (la visite) is the subject of the sentence, French strongly prefers durer (to last). If you want to use prendre (to take) to express how much time an activity requires, you usually restructure the sentence with an impersonal subject, like this: Ça prend deux heures de visiter le musée (It takes two hours to visit the museum).
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