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Glossary entry

Dutch term or phrase:

een 2-tal uur

English translation:

a couple of hours; about 2 hours

Added to glossary by philgoddard
Dec 10, 2012 18:41
11 yrs ago
Dutch term

2-tal uur

Dutch to English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
The pain disappeared in "2 tal uur".
My guess is "several hours". Other possibilities: "something like 2 hours"; "about 2 hours".
Proposed translations (English)
5 +7 a couple of hours
3 within 2 hours
Change log

Dec 10, 2012 19:05: philgoddard changed "Field" from "Medical" to "Other" , "Field (specific)" from "Medical (general)" to "General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters"

Dec 13, 2012 04:10: TechLawDC Created KOG entry

Dec 13, 2012 14:52: philgoddard changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/20000">TechLawDC's</a> old entry - "2-tal uur; een 2-tal uur"" to ""a couple of hours; about 2 hours""

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (2): Tim van den Oudenhoven, philgoddard

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Discussion

Barend van Zadelhoff Dec 13, 2012:
TechLawDC Just for the record, it is always preceded by 'een'

The phrase you offered must have been in correct Dutch:

'De pijn verdween in een 2-tal uur.'

You would not say 'De pijn verdween in 2-tal uur', except perhaps when you are from an immigrant background :-)

so it is:

in een 4-tal uur (more usually 'een viertal uur') - in about 4 hours
in een 2-tal uur - in about 2 hours

so could you remove '2-tal uur' from the glossary entry and just leave 'een 2-tal uur' (een tweetal uur)?

Thank you in advance.
TechLawDC (asker) Dec 13, 2012:
What about 4-tal uur or een 4-tal uur. It turns out I had seen this before and that I believe it means "about 2 hours". Thus "een 4-tal uur" would be "about 4 hours".
Barend van Zadelhoff Dec 10, 2012:
Thank you for pointing that out to me.

Anyway, I think we agree that in:

'De pijn verdween in een 2-tal uur.'

'2-tal uur' means 'ongeveer 2 uur', a bit more or a bit less, as Tim also pointed out.
philgoddard Dec 10, 2012:
I was going to make exactly that point, but I decided I'd gone on for long enough. Yes, "een paar" is much more of a moveable feast than "a couple".
Barend van Zadelhoff Dec 10, 2012:
Phil Thank you for replying.

I must be 'linguistically contaminated' by the Dutch 'paar' then.
If we say 'paar' we may mean 'a few' like in van Dale, entry 5

paar: enige, enkele, een stuk of wat
examples:
'geef mij een paar kersen' (probably 10 or so :-))
'ik moet nog een paar bladzijden lezen' (may be 2, 3 or 4)
'er zijn een paar fouten in gevonden' (probably more than two)

I also found in Longman:

b) a small number of things

I just need to make a couple more calls.

You'll be all right in a couple of days


And this is how 'a couple of hours' sounds to me, but it doesn't to many others so it would seem :-)
philgoddard Dec 10, 2012:
Barend A couple of hours doesn't imply three or four. It means approximately two, just like tweetal in Dutch. Have a look at my dictionary reference.
Barend van Zadelhoff Dec 10, 2012:
Agree as well

in about 2 hours

or

some 2 hours
some 2 hours or so

I am not sure but, Phil?, a couple of hours could imply and sounds like 'a small number of hours', so also 3 or 4, which would not be exact enough
June Derlachter Dec 10, 2012:
Agree!
Tim van den Oudenhoven Dec 10, 2012:
"about 2 hours" (it's important to include the "2", since it could be a bit more or a bit less, but certainly not 3 hours, for instance)

Proposed translations

+7
23 mins
Selected

a couple of hours

Short for tweetal.
Reference:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tweetal

Peer comment(s):
agree writeaway : and bravo for voting this non-pro. it's everyday Dutch.
44 mins
;-)
agree Sally Hill (X)
44 mins
agree Alexander Schleber (X) : Fits the formulation, otherwise it would have been "2 uren".
1 hr
agree June Derlachter : Much like "about 2 hours", this is totally acceptable.
1 hr
agree Josephine Isaacs (X)
2 hrs
agree Jack den Haan : Absolutely!
2 hrs
agree Marjolein Snippe : or 'some 2 hours'
1 day 21 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you. "
56 mins

within 2 hours

Maby this will help
Peer comment(s):
neutral writeaway : no, it's not that specific.
12 mins
Something went wrong...
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