Actually "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 someb

Actually "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.