El examen avanzado dura dos horas.

The advanced exam lasts two hours.

Breakdown of El examen avanzado dura dos horas.

• la hora: the hour
• dos: two
• el examen: the exam
• durar: to last
• avanzado: advanced

Questions & Answers about El examen avanzado dura dos horas.

Why is the verb dura used here? I thought tardar was the usual verb for “how long something takes.”

Spanish actually makes a distinction:

• durar = how long something lasts (its duration)
• tardar = how long someone takes to do something
• tomar = colloquial “to take” time (similar to tardar)

In El examen avanzado dura dos horas, the focus is on the exam’s duration. If you said tarda, it would sound like you’re stressing how long it makes a student wait or work.

Why is the present tense (dura) used to describe the exam’s length? Isn’t the exam in the future?

In Spanish, the present tense often expresses scheduled or general facts, even if the event is in the future. For example:

• La película empieza a las 8 p.m. (The movie starts at 8 p.m.)
• La reunión dura una hora. (The meeting lasts one hour.)

Here, dura states an established fact about the exam’s length.

Why does avanzado come after examen? In English we say “advanced exam” before the noun.

Most Spanish adjectives follow the noun:

• examen avanzado
• libro interesante

Putting an adjective before the noun can happen for stylistic reasons or to change emphasis/meaning, but the default is noun + adjective. Also, avanzado agrees in gender (–o) and number (singular) with examen, which is masculine and singular.

Why do we say El examen? Could we drop the article and say just Examen avanzado dura dos horas?

Spanish often uses the definite article (el/la) before nouns when talking about specific or general things.

• El examen avanzado dura dos horas. (This particular advanced exam…)
  If you want to speak of any advanced exam in general, you could use the indefinite article:
• Un examen avanzado dura dos horas.

Why is horas plural here?

When a numeral in Spanish is greater than one, the noun it modifies must be plural:

• dos horas
• tres días
• cuatro semanas

Because 2 > 1, you need horas (plural).

Can I replace dura with toma or tarda to say the same thing?

Yes, especially in colloquial speech you’ll hear:

• El examen avanzado toma dos horas.
  But remember:
• tardar implies an active “taking time” (often by a person)
• durar is the neutral way to state an event’s length

So dura is the most natural for the exam itself.

Is there another way to express duration besides using durar?

Absolutely. You can use ser de + [time period]:

• El examen avanzado es de dos horas.
  This construction is also very common when talking about events, classes, movies, etc.

Can I invert the word order and say Dura dos horas el examen avanzado?

Grammatically it’s correct, but it sounds marked or poetic. The neutral, everyday word order is:

• El examen avanzado dura dos horas.
  You might invert it only for emphasis or a more literary style.