Chopped and changed from http://stackoverflow.com/a/6574789/205832

def _humanize_time(amount, units):
    """Chopped and changed from http://stackoverflow.com/a/6574789/205832"""
    intervals = (1, 60, 60 * 60, 60 * 60 * 24, 604800, 2419200, 29030400)
    names = (
        ("second", "seconds"),
        ("minute", "minutes"),
        ("hour", "hours"),
        ("day", "days"),
        ("week", "weeks"),
        ("month", "months"),
        ("year", "years"),
    )

    result = []
    unit = [x[1] for x in names].index(units)
    # Convert to seconds
    amount = amount * intervals[unit]
    for i in range(len(names) - 1, -1, -1):
        a = int(amount) // intervals[i]
        if a > 0:
            result.append((a, names[i][1 % a]))
            amount -= a * intervals[i]
    return result