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La riunione dura da due ore.

La riunione dura da due ore.
The meeting has been going on for two hours.
From Lesson 99:Prepositions of time (da, per, tra, fra)·Italian

Questions & Answers about La riunione dura da due ore.

Why does the Italian sentence use the present tense dura if the English says 'has been going on'?
In Italian, when an action started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense. English uses the present perfect continuous ('has been going on'), which makes this a very common trap for English speakers!
Why do we use da here to mean 'for'? Shouldn't 'for' be per?
We use da because the meeting is still ongoing. In Italian, da combined with a length of time means the action hasn't finished yet. If the meeting were already over and completed, you would use per to talk about its duration.
What exactly does the verb dura mean here?
Dura is the present tense of durare, which means 'to last' or 'to endure.' So, a very literal translation of how Italians phrase this would be 'The meeting lasts since two hours.'
Could da due ore also mean 'since two o'clock'?
No, due ore strictly means a duration of 'two hours.' If you wanted to say the meeting has been going on since a specific point in time like two o'clock, you would say dalle due, combining da with the article le for the time on the clock.

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