(within) 1 hour drive

Dear guests,

1) Pushkin is 1 hour drive from St. Petersburg

2) Pushkin is within 1 hour drive from St. Petersburg

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3) The Peter and Paul Fortress is 30 minute walk from the Hermitage

4) The Peter and Paul Fortress is within 30 minute walk from the Hermitage

Are all these sentences possible? What does "within" add to them?

Thanks

For the first sentence say:

Pushkin is a one hour drive from St. Petersburg.

I am not used to the usage for the second sentence. Instead, I would say:

Pushkin is less than an hour from St. Petersburg.

For sentence three, say:

The Peter and Paul Fortress is a 30 minute walk from the Hermitage.

For sentence four, say:

The Peter and Paul Fortress is less than a 30 minute walk from the Hermitage.

milan2003_07 said:

What does "within" add to them?

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Anything that takes less than 30 minutes to walk to is within a 30 minute walk. Something that takes 20 minutes to walk to is within a 30 minute walk.

Tarheel said:

Pushkin is a one hour drive from St. Petersburg.

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I would add a hyphen:

Pushkin is a one-hour drive from St. Petersburg.

I always consider 'a 30-minute walk' to be absolutely useless as any sort of helpful information.*

There's an enormous difference between the distance that can be walked in 30 minutes by a short, arthritic, asthmatic 78-year-old like me, and a tall, fit young athlete like Andy Murray.

Just tell me how far it is and whether it's uphill, downhill or on the level, and I'll be the judge of how long it will take me to walk it.

* Edit: It's only useful to those who know for a fact that they couldn't walk for 30 minutes if their lives depended on it.

While I can sympathize with Rover, my assumption is that when somebody makes a comment like that, they're giving an average, or an estimate that anybody could do it in - sort of a worst-case scenario time-wise. Or at least they should be.

Fast walkers will do it in less, but anybody short of a one legged drunkard on crutches will be able to do it in the target time.

At least that's true for my time estimates - they're given at a leisurely stroll for me, which is probably twice as long as a determined walker needs. If I'm walking someplace, then that's a sign I've pretty much given up on schedules anyway.

These terms are very often used in tourist brochures. It's difficult to know what they can replace it with. "It's only 2 km away." What, across a river with no bridge? "No, a 2 km walk." Over the alps?

I was suggesting to milan2003, who has not yet acknowledged any replies, that we need to know how far it is from A to B.

He/she did not mention the distance to be walked.

The 'one-hour drive' is acceptable; we assume normal traffic conditions and observing local speed limits.

Piscean said:

1. Pushkin is an hour's drive from St Petersburg.
2. Pushkin is no more than an hour's drive from St Petersburg.
3. The Peter and Paul fortress is a 30-minute walk from the Hermitage.
4. The Peter and Paul fortress is no more than a 30-minute walk from the Hermitage.

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I've got one more question here. Will it make any difference if I choose "an hour drive" instead of "an hour's drive"?

1) Pushkin is an hour's drive from St Petersburg.
2) Pushkin is an hour drive from St Petersburg.

milan2003_07 said:

I've got one more question here. Will it make any difference if I choose "an hour drive" instead of "an hour's drive"?

1) Pushkin is an hour's drive from St Petersburg.
2) Pushkin is an hour drive from St Petersburg.

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Only the first sentence is correct. You can say a one-hour drive, but not ​an hour drive.

GoesStation said:

Only the first sentence is correct. You can say a one-hour drive, but not ​an hour drive.

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Ok.

What about the following:

1) Peterhof is a 2 hour's drive from St Petersburg
2) Peterhof is a two-hour drive from St Petersburg

Are these correct?

milan2003_07 said:

Ok.

What about the following:

1) Peterhof is a 2 hour's drive from St Petersburg
2) Peterhof is a two-hour drive from St Petersburg

Are these correct?

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Yes, if they ended with periods. In AmE we also use a period in St. Petersburg. The city was named Leningrad when I visited there, fifty years ago this year!

GoesStation said:

Yes, if they ended with periods. In AmE we also use a period in St. Petersburg. The city was named Leningrad when I visited there, fifty years ago this year!

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Thanks! Of course, I know about periods, just quick typing and I forgot to put them in the right place. My city was renamed Leningrad in 1924 and then St. Petersburg again in 1991 after a referendum. The original name was given to the city by Peter the Great, but St. Petersburg means "City of St. Peter".

Don't forget the ten years when it was named Petrograd.

GoesStation said:

Don't forget the ten years when it was named Petrograd.

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Of course! I also tell this fact to tourists. The city was renamed Petrograd when World War I broke out. The name changed to Leningrad in 1924.

milan2003_07 said:

Of course! I also tell this fact to tourists. The city was renamed Petrograd when World War I broke out. The name changed to Leningrad in 1924.

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So "Petrograd" is not "St. Petersburg" in Russian?

Tarheel said:

So "Petrograd" is not "St. Petersburg" in Russian?

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No, "Petrograd" means the city named after Peter the Great because "...grad" means "city" or "town" in Russian. Not all people living here today remember the word "Petrograd" because it lasted just 10 years. However, the Great October Revolution of 1917 happened in Petrograd, not in Leningrad or St. Petersburg.

milan2003_07 said:

No, "Petrograd" means the city named after Peter the Great because "...grad" means "city" or "town" in Russian. Not all people living here today remember the word "Petrograd" because it lasted just 10 years. However, the Great October Revolution of 1917 happened in Petrograd, not in Leningrad or St. Petersburg.

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And the failed 1905 revolution began in St. Petersburg, too. I recently learned that my grandfather spent nine months in prison when he was caught up in that event. The family history doesn't include any details, but the feeling is that he was not actually involved; like many other people, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and, especially, with the wrong ethnicity.

I wonder whether any records of his imprisonment exist.

GoesStation said:

And the failed 1905 revolution began in St. Petersburg, too. I recently learned that my grandfather spent nine months in prison when he was caught up in that event. The family history doesn't include any details, but the feeling is that he was not actually involved; like many other people, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and, especially, with the wrong ethnicity.

I wonder whether any records of his imprisonment exist.

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The Revolution of 1905 was the first Russian revolution and it's mostly remembered now because of the Bloody Sunday (January, 9th 1905) when a demonstration of workers was shot on Palace Square near the Winter Palace. In 1905 our city was still St. Petersburg because it hadn't yet been renamed Petrograd. What you're saying about your grandfather seems possible because there were many arrests in 1905 and after that. concerning the imprisonement records they might exist where he was incarcerated, but this won't be an easy thing to find.