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Even 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 comple
by jurie 9y ago
Even 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 9y ago"Quarter four" we'd never say, did you mean "quarter to four" - in which case it's 3:45.
- jt2190 9y agoPerhaps he meant to write: "quarter of four". As opposed to: "quarter to four".
- abritinthebay 9y agoWhich would still be really strange and not understood by most Brits (source: am Brit)
- sjrd 9y agoIn old-ish French (spoken by my grandparents' generation in some parts of Belgium), you can still hear "la demie de 2 heures" and "le quart de 7 heures", which directly translate to "the half of 2 hours" and "the quarter of 7 hours". They in fact mean 1:30 and 6:45! (am or pm depending on the context). Also in current Dutch, at least as spoken in Belgium aka Flamish, we say "half twee" which means "half two" and refers to 1:30.
- the_mitsuhiko 9y agoQuarter four in German is 3:15
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoIt's not uncommon in some areas of the UK to swallow the "to", basically poor diction, which to the untrained ear it would sound as "quart'a four". It doesn't happen with "past", but then people often miss off the hour and just say "quarter past". In Russian as I was taught in high-school they refer to the coming hour, like "15 minutes of 3" is 02h15.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]