ENGLISH
REFERENCE

per hour

prep. phr..
A2 Elementary Oxford

prep. phr.. This means 'for each hour' or 'every hour'. You use it to talk about speed, payment, or how often something happens in one hour.

prep. phr.. A prepositional phrase that functions adverbially to specify a rate of occurrence, payment, or movement for each unit of one hour.


SIMPLE

The speed limit is 50 miles per hour.

CONTEXTUAL

My new job pays twenty dollars per hour, which is better than my last one.

COMPLEX

The data processing system is capable of handling several million transactions per hour during peak traffic.

Usage

This phrase is common in contexts of payment, speed, and rates of production or consumption.

Teaching tip

Explain that 'per' means 'for each' and can be substituted with 'an' in informal speech, for example, '60 miles an hour'.

Pitfall

She charges fifteen dollars for hour.She charges fifteen dollars per hour.To express a rate, use 'per hour' or 'an hour'; 'for hour' is not a standard construction.

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