année vs an

Question

Why cette année instead of cet an?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Carl,
"An" has more of a "counting" notion to it (a time unit as per the lesson content) whilst "année" has more of 'descriptive' notion to it (length of time, the duration).
See link here for more:
about-l-an-l-annee
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Answer

Hi Carl,"Yes, this year, we can't go home ....."     The text is making reference to the current year in it's entirety not as 2021 in the sense of a 12 months period within the decade.La année relates to the duration (the entirety of 12 months) whereas l'an refers to one of the 12 month periods within the decade.This is the point to keep in mind.Hope this helps.Jim