"In one year"

Translation: Dans un an

[cbkenn]

I wasn't sure whether it would be 'un an' or 'une annee'. How do you know which to use?

[daKanga]

"Un an" is a unit of time. It is always used for age. It is used for ordinal numbers (1, 2, 3, etc)
"Un an en France." - One year in France - being a point in time, that it is the point in time that you have been in France for one year.

"Une année" is used when describing not the unit, but the full span of time. For example
"l'année derière"-last year. ;
"quelques année" - a few years ;
"Je suis en France pendant une année." I am in France for a year - for the period, duration, of one year.

[daKanga]

Following on from that, and in light of the usage of "dans" and "en" also discussed here, could someone confirm for me:
"Un an en France" : a specific point of time - being the one year mark in France.
Can you also have :
"Un année dans la France" : being a duration of time, the duration of the year in France.
Can someone confirm if both these sentences are correctly formed in french? Thank you.

[daKanga]

I have also found this link in anther stream. It is well worth reading ! http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/an-annee-jour-journee-matin-matinee-soir-soiree.htm

[sherryli1119]

When to use "dans" and when to use "en"?

[aurelienche]

For years (or months, days, hours, etc., or centuries, etc.), « dans x years » always means “in x years”, starting from the timeline of the speaker.

« en » is used when you want to point at a specific year or month (that's all): « en 2014 » (so, « dans 1 an » from now), « en mai » (so, « dans 2 mois » from now).

Here is the equivalent of « en » for (almost?) everything else : for eras, it's « à l' » (« à l'ère tertiaire »); for millenniums and centuries, it's « au » (« au deuxième millénaire », « au quinzième siècle ») and we use ordinals; for days, it's « le » (« le 24 mai », « le mardi »); and for hours it's « à » (« à 17 heure »).

[Minituttle]

in theory your question is legitimate. En un an should have been accepted there. It all depends on the context.
In a year i will be in Madrid : dans un an je serai a Madrid
How many times have you visited me in a year? = combien de fois m'as tu rendu visite en un an
There you can see the difference in usage.
I hope this helps.

[fezett]

I was distracted and put "pendant une année" for "In one year". But isn't that actually technically correct? If I had wanted to say for example "In one year I built my house" (as in "it took me one year") than wouldn't it be "pendant"?

[moosebouse]

Pendant means during. I think of it as pending, as in while something else was pending, but that's just a memory thing I made up.

[JohnG.3]

I read this sentence as "in the span of one year" -- i.e. "during one year," in which case, I do feel "pendant" would be appropriate. Any further thoughts?

[wkevinc]

How is this not en? Even Google Translate agreed with me.

[daKanga]

Google translate is often wrong. Also check out www.reverso.net. It is more often right, compared to google translate - but also it is not foolproof. Language is such a complex thing.

[DrFoot]

so again there#s an exception for: un in front of nouns starting with vocals, hm?