French Expression of the Day: Une petite heure
This French expression might help you judge just how late (or early) your friend will be arriving.
Why do I need to know une petite heure?
Because this is an important way that French people estimate time.
What does it mean?
Une petite heure – roughly pronounced oon peh-teet urr – translates precisely to ‘a little hour’.
This French expression is not literally calling a unit of time small - it is mostly used to estimate how long something will take.
For example, if your friend comes back from the line at the restaurant to tell you how long the wait is and they say cela va prendre une petite heure (It will take one little hour), they are basically telling you that the wait time is a bit under an hour.
You can also use this expression in the opposite sense - to describe something taking longer than the estimated time. If the walk is closer to 20 minutes than 15 minutes, your friend might say: Cela va prendre un gros quart d'heure (It will take a big quarter of an hour).
You can estimate any amount of time by adding the words “gros” or “petit” in front.
Keep in mind, however, that the difference between une gros demi-heure or une petite demi-heure depends on the person giving you the time estimate. For some ‘une gros demi-heure’ might be 40 minutes, while for others it might just be 32-25 minutes.
The time judgement is in the eye of the beholder.
Use it like this
Je suis en retard. J'ai encore une grosse heure de bouchons devant moi. – I’m running late. I still have over an hour of traffic ahead of me.
Nous pouvons nous rendre à pied au restaurant. C'est une petite vingtaine de minutes à pied. – We can walk to the restaurant. It’s under 20 minutes by foot.
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Why do I need to know une petite heure?
Because this is an important way that French people estimate time.
What does it mean?
Une petite heure – roughly pronounced oon peh-teet urr – translates precisely to ‘a little hour’.
This French expression is not literally calling a unit of time small - it is mostly used to estimate how long something will take.
For example, if your friend comes back from the line at the restaurant to tell you how long the wait is and they say cela va prendre une petite heure (It will take one little hour), they are basically telling you that the wait time is a bit under an hour.
You can also use this expression in the opposite sense - to describe something taking longer than the estimated time. If the walk is closer to 20 minutes than 15 minutes, your friend might say: Cela va prendre un gros quart d'heure (It will take a big quarter of an hour).
You can estimate any amount of time by adding the words “gros” or “petit” in front.
Keep in mind, however, that the difference between une gros demi-heure or une petite demi-heure depends on the person giving you the time estimate. For some ‘une gros demi-heure’ might be 40 minutes, while for others it might just be 32-25 minutes.
The time judgement is in the eye of the beholder.
Use it like this
Je suis en retard. J'ai encore une grosse heure de bouchons devant moi. – I’m running late. I still have over an hour of traffic ahead of me.
Nous pouvons nous rendre à pied au restaurant. C'est une petite vingtaine de minutes à pied. – We can walk to the restaurant. It’s under 20 minutes by foot.
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