Belgium· easy· informal

avoir dur

to have hard

Meaning

to be struggling, having a rough time

Explanation

Belgian French does something standard French won't: bolt an adjective straight onto avoir and skip the usual avoir du mal or avoir des difficultés altogether. J'ai eu dur avec cet examen tells any Walloon or Brussels listener you had a rough time of it, no extra words required. It belongs to a small family of Belgian constructions built the same way, avoir facile, avoir difficile, avoir dur, all short-circuiting the standard grammar.

Example

J'ai eu dur avec ce dossier, j'y ai passé toute la semaine.

I had a rough time with that file, I spent the whole week on it.

Origin

A calque of the Walloon aveur deur, which means exactly the same thing.

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