an hour and a half
- noun
- The next day, in Nice, I found that I had an hour and a half before my flight.
- about an hour and a half
- last an hour and a half
- an hour and a half away
So an hour and a half out of your day.
- So an hour and a half out of your day.
- And so I had an hour and a half bus ride coming home.
- We've all tried for an hour and a half and we deserve this.
- You only have two hours, you know, or an hour and a half more like even better.
- Most kids will play maybe you know, an hour and a half, two days a week.
- And it was there sitting for an hour and a half, not moving.
- I'll wake up an hour and a half before I have to be on set.
- I heard the Find My iPhone ping for about an hour and a half straight.
Examples
-
But it's been about an hour and a half since I got home from the treatment.
-
She'll be coming home in less than an hour and a half.
Fiction book (1994) -
So an hour and a half out of your day.
-
And so I had an hour and a half bus ride coming home.
-
I have been here for an hour and a half.
-
On that particular night, I walked for an hour and a half.
Fiction book (1998) -
I drove around for an hour and a half looking for him.
Fiction book (1995) -
The class meets twice a week for an hour and a half each Tuesday and Thursday.
Academic text (1999) -
We had a conversation that lasted for an hour and a half nonstop.
-
I have been studying for an hour and a half and still don't understand the topic.
How Long
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'hour' (60 minutes) plus 'and a half' (an additional half of an hour) yields 90 minutes, so a learner who knows 'hour' and 'half' can compute the duration. The 'X and a half' construction is a regular, cross-linguistic way to indicate one-and-a-half units, making this immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The phrase an hour and a half is a simple clock picture: an hour is 60 minutes and a half is 30 minutes. Put them together and you have 90 minutes, so the phrase means '90 minutes'.