durante

Durante is a preposition used in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian to indicate that an action or event takes place within a specific time frame. It is typically translated into English as during or throughout and governs the noun phrase that follows it.

In usage, durante introduces a time span such as a moment, day, week, or longer period. Examples include: Durante la reunión, se discutieron los planes (Spanish: During the meeting, the plans were discussed). Durante dos años vivimos allí (Spanish: For two years we lived there). Durante la noche, no llovió (Spanish: During the night it did not rain). In Portuguese: Durante a festa houve muitos convidados. Durante muito tempo, estudou-se o caso. In Italian: Durante la notte, rimase silenzioso. Durante due settimane, non lavorammo.

Etymology traces durante to Latin durante, itself from durare, meaning to last. The term is cognate with other Romance forms of the same root and shares its core meaning across these languages: marking the duration of an action.

Notes on nuance: durante emphasizes the entire duration or a significant portion of it, rather than a single point. It is often contrasted with adverbial phrases like por or in, which may convey purpose or specific moments. In practice, durante is a straightforward temporal connector in both formal and colloquial contexts.

See also: mientras (while), por (for, over a period, in some contexts), durante toda la noche (a common collocation).