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I can understand how this happens. For example, telling time in Norwegian took me viewing time differently. English tends to place importance on the last whole
by Broken_Hippo 10y ago
I can understand how this happens.
For example, telling time in Norwegian took me viewing time differently. English tends to place importance on the last whole hour that passed: Half past six, six thirty-five, six twenty. It isn't until we approach the next whole hour that we give it any credit: Quarter 'til seven.
Norwegian, on the other hand, seems to focus more on the "now" and the future, orientated around the nearest 15-minute mark and the next whole hour, only focusing on the hour that has passed for the first 15 minute. it is quite possible I've flubbed on the exact phrasing: While my Norwegian is on the upper end of adequate and passed the state tests, I am still far from truly fluent
6:20? Ten 'til half seven.
6:30? Half seven.
6:35? Five over half seven.
- ilanco 10y agoIn the Dutch language, and probably others, people tell the time similarly.
- soperj 10y agoSame w/ German. Halb Neun (Half Nine) is 8:30. Half to nine.
- dEnigma 10y agoIn some regions they even use "Viertel Neun" (Quarter nine) for 8:15; but "Viertel über Acht" (Quarter past eight) is also common.
- vostok 10y agoThis is the same in my language where one might say "quarter of the ninth". The idea is that [00:00,01:00) is the first hour so [08:00,09:00) is the ninth hour.
- sk5t 10y agoReally? I've only heard "viertel neun" to mean 8:45.
- dvdkhlng 10y agoActually "viertel vor neun" means 8:45 (literall "quater before nine"), while "viertel neun" means 8:15. Use seems to be different by region. I once met somebody from western germany who was late by half an hour as he was not familiar with the "viertel neun" semantics. He claimed that only eastern germans would use that term.
- ido 10y agoViertel neun for 8:15 and drei viertel neun for 8:45 are commonly used in Austria.
- IshKebab 10y agoThat sounds really clumsy. Like how the French still say "four score and ten" (in French).
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoIt seems really clumsy until you get used to it. My spouse - a Norwegian - thinks the opposite about English time phrases. Clumsy and inaccurate.
- Swizec 10y agoThe first thing I learned in the US: nobody says half past or ten to or any of those things. They only make sense on analog round clocks. What people say is stuff like "six twenty", "four fiftyfive" etc
- cbhl 10y agoI grew up being taught how to say "half past or ten to" in school, but I think people stopped doing it when digital clocks became cheap and ubiquitous (in the 90s).
- spc476 10y agoFor a while, as a joke, I used to say stuff like "it's 5 till a quarter past X" or "it's 20 past a quarter to Y". It tends to throw people off.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> The first thing I learned in the US: nobody says half past or ten to or any of those things. I hear people say those all the time. Somewhat less with people under 30 or so. > They only make sense on analog round clocks. Actually, 10 minutes til <hour> makes perfect sense as a description of time independent of any mechanism of displaying the time. It's not a natural way to read a digital clock, but not all discussion of time proceeds from reading clocks. Also, analog round wall clocks (and watches, and digital faces for smart watches that simulate them) still exist, and aren't that uncommon, taken together.
- anonemouse145 10y agoYes we do. What we don't do is the German- we don't say "halb sechs" (half to six, 5:30). We would say "half past five". Many people are used to telling precise time from being insanely overworked all the time, so you need to say it is precisely 5:33 because 5:27 is a world of difference.
- Swizec 10y agoFWIW I once missed a flight because I remembered that my flight was at "half past" and there was a flight to the same destination at 6:25am and at 6:30am. At the same terminal. On different gates. Didn't even keep reading the board after I spotted the 6:25 flight. It was the wrong one.
- bitwize 10y agoIn English we have expressions like "a quarter till five" too. But usually, everything up to and including the half-hour is reckoned in terms of the past whole hour.
- throwaway7645 10y agoTo make it slightly more ambiguous you could say "quarter till", but I suppose to know that you'd have to know basically know that the next hour is 5 in your example, although a scenario could exist where you know how much time till the next hour but not what the current time is.
- delinka 10y agoTo me, "quarter 'til" assumes the listener knows the next hour, not that the speaker doesn't know the next hour.
- tzs 10y ago> Half past six, six thirty-five, six twenty. It isn't until we approach the next whole hour that we give it any credit: Quarter 'til seven. It's sometime amusing to use the "half past" or "quarter to" form but not with whole hours. E.g., if someone asks the time at 6:35, you say "quarter to 6:50" or "half past 6:05". It can perplex people. (Best to only do this with people who already know you are a twit...).
- jsudhams 10y agoWhy is the new generation not using exact time like 6:45 5:30 etc? It is very confusing for non english speaker.Because we have to convert half to 30 and past to past and hour. Hmmm.... in recent trip two times is missed correct time and asked 6:45 or 7:15 tell me exact time. Is it very difficult for the people who are used say in work like half past seven to say 7:30 ?
- jurie 10y agoEven more confusing is when people don't give an indication of which side of the hour they're talking about. I grew up speaking Canadian English, and was completely lost when I asked a Brit for the time and was told "Quarter four". Is that 3:45, 4:15, or .25*4=1?
- mutatio 10y ago"Quarter four" we'd never say, did you mean "quarter to four" - in which case it's 3:45.
- jt2190 10y agoPerhaps he meant to write: "quarter of four". As opposed to: "quarter to four".
- abritinthebay 10y agoWhich would still be really strange and not understood by most Brits (source: am Brit)
- jerryszczerry 10y agoI don't know if you can do it in Norwegian, but in colloquial Polish it's possible to specify how much time will pass until the next full hour without specifying what hour it is. So, it's possible to say, for instance: „Jest dwadzieścia po” [It is twenty past X] or „Jest za dziesięć wpół do” [It is ten till half X], regarding your first example.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoI know it is possible in English, and one assumes the other know the whole hour one is referring to. I'm not sure about Norwegian - that bit isn't something that has cropped up in my personal vocabulary yet. :)
- mbroncano 10y agoSame for colloquial Spanish indeed
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- scq 10y agoI've heard this in colloquial English too, e.g. "It's quarter to, I'd better get going".
- mveety 10y agoYou can do it in swedish in a similar way, so I would think this is possible, too, in norwegian (the languages are really quite similar).