au moins and du moins

Hi Jean,

Both can be translated by "at least" but "du moins" is a qualifying statement while "au moins" talks about the minimum. Here is an example:

Il est allé se coucher, du moins je le crois. -- He went to sleep, at least that's what I believe.
Il a dormi au moins 8 heures. -- He slept at least 8 hours.

 

-- Chris (not a native speaker).

Thanks Chris, very helpful.

A typo struck again in my previous post. It should be "il a dormi 8 heures...".

-- Chris. 

... and of course also "il est allé se coucher..."

I do wish there were some way to go back and correct them. 

-- Chris. 

LOL, I was so concentrating on the main substance of your reply, I hadn't noticed. No worries,I know how annoying it is to see  " fautes d'inattention" in one's writing when it's too late to fix!