Je courrai sur le tapis roulant pendant une demie heurent une demi-heure

Question

Can you have "je courrai sur le tapis roulant pour une demie heure" because its the future tense?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Maarten,
Yes, actually I agree with you. My response or my examples were not that that clear indeed (examples from my previous answer updated below). So, I researched and discussed this point with other colleagues.
When using a verb in Le Futur Simple + “pour +[duration]”, the verbs is a "verbe d’état" such“être, rester, demeurer” and the [duration] refers to a long stay (i.e. ou are going to be there for that specific duration, like "les vacances / deux mois"). “Courir” is not a "verbe d’état". Therefore, using anything other than “pendant” would sound clunky.

Je courrai pendant une demi-heure = I will run for half an hour
Je resterai pour les vacances = I will for the holidays

I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Céline, maybe I am the only one, but I don’t find this response helps understand why ‘ pour ‘ is incorrect here, rather than perhaps just not often used.

The action/event is in the future, it is an intent (it is preceded by ‘should go tomorrow’ making it even clearer that it is not a ‘given’, if that is distinguishing), and it is a specified duration, which has at least as clear a start and finish time as ‘resterai pour une demi-heure’

I think this needs more detail here and in the lesson - either more examples in general, or more examples of future events and durations that could not, or where a native speaker would not, use ‘ pour ‘ as an option to using ‘pendant’ or ‘durant’.

Answer

Thanks Céline, the extra information is helpful and appreciated.