Durant vs il y a

Question

'Tu es resté enfermé ________ une heure?'' You stayed locked in for an hour?Marked wrong for il y a.. they wanted "durant"The help does not explain the difference and why I am wrong.. any ideas?

Answer

“Il y a une heure” indicates when the event happened - “1 hour ago”, it does not indicate the duration.

Pendant/durant indicate the duration, but not when the event occurred, without further information. Using “il y a” changes the meaning.

Il y a + [durée] = [duration] + ago (French Expressions of Time)%252Fsearch%253Fs%253DIl%252By%252Ba

Expressing for + [duration] in French with either pendant/durant/depuis/pour (French Prepositions of Time)%252Fsearch%253Fs%253DPendant

Answer

Thanks Maarten.. maybe time to put it to bed for a day.. thought I knew that!Looking at "Il est venu à Londres il y a cinq ans" and thinking of it as a duration.