Understanding 1年とちょっと

Question

悠真「卒業まであと1年とちょっとって考えると、時の流れは早いものだね」

How should I understand the と in bold? I found a previous question here.

https://hinative.com/ja/questions/14258749

It says 1年ちょっと means "more than one year". Does 1年とちょっと mean the same? And why is there a と? Isn’t ちょっと an adverb?

Answer 1

I don't see any difference between Xちょっと and Xとちょっと where X is some quantity. It means a little more than X. E.g. 一年(と)ちょっと = a year + a month or so. 一万円(と)ちょっと = 10000 yen + around 1000 yen.

In dictionaries ちょっと is an adverb, but works as a noun in とちょっと. The following should be relevant:

「少し」には、「少しの暇」「少しは理解できる」などのように名詞的な使い方もある。「ちょっと」は、ややくだけた言い方。