I wrote à dix minutes de Marseille and it was wrong; corrected to à 10 mins de ... What is the difference since writing out numbers for time is OK elsewhere.
In French, to say that a place or a person is (at) a certain distance from somewhere, you use the expression:
à [distance] de [lieu]
Look at these examples:
Note that the distance can be expressed as a duration - 5 minutes from Paris - or as a physical distance - 5 km from Paris.
ATTENTION:
In French, you must always use à before the distance:
Je suis cinq minutes de Paris. -> Je suis à cinq minutes de Paris.
Note also that when locations are introduced by the definite articles le and les, de contracts into du and des :
Je suis à 5 minutes du cinéma.
I'm 5 minutes from the cinema.
L'école est à 15 minutes des magasins.
The school is 15 minutes from the shops.
Learn more about these related French grammar topics
Examples and resources
Q&A Forum 5 questions, 15 answers
CécileKwiziq team member
Hi Liz,
Could you try to report this with the Report it button in your correction board, failing this, we need more detail on the specific quiz as 'minutes' should have been accepted, I think...
Liz asked:View original
Very confused!
I wrote à dix minutes de Marseille and it was wrong; corrected to à 10 mins de ... What is the difference since writing out numbers for time is OK elsewhere.
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ElizabethKwiziq community member
Hello, Thank you for this lesson. Would we use 'de la' if the lieu is féminin? I only saw a mention of du/des. Thank you.
Asked 5 months ago
Hi Elizabeth,
Yes, you could say for example -
"Nous sommes à 5 km de la maison "
Hope this helps!
Elizabeth asked:View original
Hello, Thank you for this lesson. Would we use 'de la' if the lieu is féminin? I only saw a mention of du/des. Thank you.
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MarnieKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
I’m vs kilometres
I was marked “almost right” when I used ‘kilometres’ instead of ‘km’. Do you always abbreviate distances?
Asked 1 year ago
Bonjour Marnie !
I've had a look at your Correction Board, and Chris's intuition was right: you forgot the accent on "kilometres", hence the Nearly Correct mark :)
When reporting about specific scoring issues, please use the "Report it" button in your Correction Board, which sends us a link straight to the question you're referring to :)
Bonne journée !
Marnie asked:View original
I’m vs kilometres
I was marked “almost right” when I used ‘kilometres’ instead of ‘km’. Do you always abbreviate distances?
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Kwiziq community member
In the quiz it marked wrong when I spelled out dix minutes. in the answer it had 10 mins
Asked 2 years ago
Ron Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Bonjour Louise,
I think your response is correct and this does seem to be a programming miscue. I am not aware of any grammar rule that requires to use the number (10) in lieu of spelling it out.
Bonne chance.
Ron
ChuckKwiziq community member
I was marked wrong when I spelled out dix minutes but it was because I misspelled Marseille. That was explained to me when I reported the issue.
BonnieKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
And I wrote dix minuts, forgetting the final e of minutes, It seems to me that mispellings like that and Marseille spelled wrong should be yellow errors, not red.
Louise asked:View original
In the quiz it marked wrong when I spelled out dix minutes. in the answer it had 10 mins
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MarkKwiziq community member
This doesn't quite seem like a reasonable thing to count as a miss:
Asked 2 years ago
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Mark !
Unfortunately, I cannot see which question you're referring to when you contact us through the Q&A section.
If you have a specific question-related issue, please click the "Report it" button next to the relevant question in your Correction Board.
À bientôt !
BonnieKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Mes parents habitent ________ .My parents live ten minutes from Marseille
BonnieKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Since it's written out in English, you'd expect to write it out in French.
BonnieKwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Since it's written out in English, you'd expect that it should be written out in French.
AurélieKwiziq team member
Bonjour Bonnie !
I've had a look at your Correction Board, and the reason you were marked down is that you wrote "à dix minuts de Marseille" which was incorrect.
"à dix minutes de Marseille" as well as other alternatives are accepted as correct by the system :)
For similar questions, in the future please use the "Report it" button in your Correction Board, as it links directly to the specific quiz take you're referring to, and makes it easier for us to answer you :)
Bonne journée !
LindaKwiziq community member
2 hours from chartes I wrote as à deux heures de chartes and it was marked wrong giving the correct response of à 2h de chartes??????
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