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I just want to confirm the meaning of the following sentence:
Les cours à l'université commencent dans trois semaines.
Does the above sentence mean that:
or
To answer the question, I will reverse the direction of the translation :
The first sentence :
The university courses will start in three weeks
becomes
Les cours à l'université vont commencer dans trois semaines
so, within 21 days.
The second sentence :
The university courses will start in week three
becomes
les cours à l'université vont commencer à la troisième semaine
That's "correct" but case-specific : indeed there is a lack of information here, since we do not know which month or year it is about (third week of which month)... Thus the speaker has to precise a landmark starting from which we start counting weeks.
A more convenient sentence would be :
Les cours à l'université vont commencer à la troisieme semaine du mois prochain.
I hope this clears up the ambiguity.
Finally, in French or in English it's not convenient (although correct) to reference order by number such as in "week three" : we should rather use "third week"/"troisième semaine".
It means that the university courses will start in three weeks.
