Dinner will be served within an hour

Roman M.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Dinner will be served within an hour

I consulted Reverso for the translation of two propositions from this lesson:

1. Dinner will be served within an hour

2. Dinner will be served in an hour's time

Both produce the same french phrase: 

Le dîner sera servi dans une heure

My question: why Kwizbot showed error to my translation into English that read “Dinner will be served within an hour”

Asked 2 weeks ago
CélineKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

Bonjour Roman,

Le dîner sera servi dans une heure = Dinner will be served in one hour

-> "dans une heure" means the dinner will be served exactly or approximately one hour from now, pointing to a specific future time.

Le dîner sera servi en une heure = Dinner will be served within one hour

->"en une heure" means suggests the dinner could be served at any time before one hour has passed, emphasising a time limit rather than a specific point.

In French, "dans + [duration]" is used to indicate a specific point in the future, while "within" in English suggests an event occurring at any point during a given time frame. Therefore, you would use "en" with the latter, i.e. "within + [duration]".

I hope this is helpful.

Bonne journée !

Roman M. asked:

Dinner will be served within an hour

I consulted Reverso for the translation of two propositions from this lesson:

1. Dinner will be served within an hour

2. Dinner will be served in an hour's time

Both produce the same french phrase: 

Le dîner sera servi dans une heure

My question: why Kwizbot showed error to my translation into English that read “Dinner will be served within an hour”

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