What is the difference between "в ходе" and "во время" if both can be used to mean "during"?

Question

I wish I could provide more context, but too much time has passed and I can't remember, exactly, what it was I was trying to say. It might have been something like ...

During the summer my Spanish teacher taught a Russian course.

The phrase "during the summer" is probably most often translated as

летом

but can also be translated as

в течение лета

or

во время летних

The translations above come from Reverso and none of the translations included "в ходе."

But when I only searched for "during" on Reverso, the first phrase to be returned was "в ходе." It was translated as such 55,134 times, followed by "во время," translated as such 43,838 times.

I then discovered that "during" when paired with a time of day or time of season, often gets translated through declension of the word itself (e.g., летом, днём).

Other phrases get translated as follows:

during the war
во время войны

during the event
во время мероприятия

during the holidays
во время праздников

during the movie
во время фильма

The first two phrases above were also translated with:

в ходе

but to a much lesser degree. The phrase "during the holidays" was translated with several variations, but none of them included "в ходе." The phrase "during the movie" had fewer variations, but neither of the ones listed included any with "в ходе." Needless to say, I am now quite confused by this and still do not know when I should use

в ходе

and when I should use

во время

Any advice?

Answer 1

В ходе means "during the course", literally "during the onward movement" (in either language).

I believe this expression is a calque from French, both in English and in Russian.

You use this expression when:

• The events you're describing are parts of a process. It has a "course", or a series of events which lead to its completion.
• That which you define with this expression has a causal relationship with these events, and didn't just happen within the same timeframe.

В ходе лета "during the course of summer" is possible, but isn't really a good choice of words because summer isn't really a process.

В ходе моей учёбы случилась пандемия is also not quite right because the pandemic didn't happen because of your studies.

В ходе обучения я узнал много нового or в ходе моего трудоустройства я завёл новые связи are, on the other hand, ok.

Answer 2

(To complement @Quassnoi's answer.)

I then discovered that "during" when paired with a time of day or time of season, often gets translated through declension of the word itself (e.g., ле́том, днём).

Yes, such adverbs exist, but not for every word. You can't say «фи́льмом» or «мероприя́тием» or «кани́кулами» to mean "during the film/event/holidays". Some of the valid ones include: у́тром, днём, ве́чером, но́чью, ле́том, о́сенью, зимо́й, весно́й. I can't think of any others.

во вре́мя ле́тних

It was probably «во вре́мя ле́тних кани́кул».

"в хо́де" and "во вре́мя"

There is also «в тече́ние»:

• Карти́на вся́кий раз вызыва́ет слёзы, и не оди́н раз в тече́ние фи́льма.
• Блейда - 2 пересма́триваю уже́ в тече́ние семи́ лет, стра́шно поду́мать…
• Кана́да заяви́ла о выделе́нии 650 тыс. до́лларов в тече́ние пяти́ лет для це́лей програ́ммы «Глоба́льное партнёрство».

[Note that it's «в тече́ние» (accusative) and not «в тече́нии» (locative).]

Answer 3

Thanks for the question. Even though Russian is my mother tongue, it takes some time to understand why I use в ходе or в течении :)

In my opinion, you should use в ходе when you describe an event or time episode in general, like

в ходе второй мировой войны - during World War II
в ходе подготовки к семинару - during preparation of the seminar

But if the reference is to a set time frame (such as "during 3 months" or "during 3 years") or something else that has defined dimensions, you should use в течение.