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Unlike the German and French versions, that doesn't make any sense at all.
by yAnonymous 9y ago
Unlike the German and French versions, that doesn't make any sense at all.
- ealexhudson 9y agoIt does. It's a contraction of "half-past two".
- barry0079 9y agoIt's a shortening of "half past two". Or half the hour past two of the clock.
- elthran 9y agoIt's a colloquial contraction of "half past 2". To me, the German makes no sense - half of 2 is 1. Agreed though that the French is the most easily understood internationally.
- netsharc 9y agoIf you think of the minute hand needing to complete the full circle to reach 2, "Half two" means the minute hand has only completed half that circle, so it's 1:30. I've even heard of "three quarters (of) two" in German, which means 1:45.
- Lev1a 9y agoYou probably mean the German expression "dreiviertel zwei". This expression is however not used everywhere in Germany because in other regions it may be said as - "viertel vor zwei" (approx. "quarter to two") or - "Dreizehn (Uhr) fünfundvierzig"/"Ein Uhr fünfundvierzig" (The exact time as you would read it off of a (digital) clock/watch) When I imagine it from the English-speakers perspective, I think "viertel" (quarter), "halb" (half) and "dreiviertel" (three quarters) are probably to be understood like this: "halb zwei" = "half two" = "1/2 2" = (2 - 1 hour) + ((1/2) * 1 hour) = 1.5 = 01:30
- dbrgn 9y ago"halb zwei" (half two) in German is to be understood as "one half of the second hour has passed". There are actually regions that use terms like "dreiviertel zwei" (three fourths of two) to indicate 01:45 and "viertel zwei" (one fourth of two) to indicate 01:15. Especially the latter confuses people from other parts of Germany, because regular high German uses the terms "viertel vor zwei" (a quarter to two) and "viertel nach zwei" (a quarter past two).
- gpvos 9y agoAnd one problem is that no-one on the European continent learns that at school or hears that on TV. I got quite confused when I recently started to travel to the UK and Ireland a bit more often.
- Symbiote 9y agoThe difference between English and German, and later the difference between English and Danish, was emphasized when I was learning the two languages. Almost all Danish people know that "halv to" is "half one".
- vidarh 9y agoMaybe it's an age thing and that it's relatively new in the UK - I certainly never hear about it when I learned English in Norway from the mid 80's onwards. Some searches also seems to support that this is something that at least did not become common until the 80's or 90's in the UK, and it makes sense that schools various places would lag behind.
- Symbiote 9y agoThe Oxford English Dictionary [1, university/library subscription needed] gives the definition "In stating the time of day, etc. = half an hour past the hour named." and a quotation from 1791: > "a1791 F. Grose Olio (1796) 107 C. Pray what's o' clock? W. It will be half ten." But until looking this up myself, I hadn't realised Americans and Australians always included the "past". Was your teacher British? -- Assuming you have some familiarity with Danish numbers, you might like another definition: "half, preceded or followed by an ordinal numeral, was formerly used to express a half-unit less than the corresponding cardinal numeral; thus Old English þridda healf, Middle English thridde half or half thrid = two and a half. Obsolete." Example (c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 13777) "Þatt sahh. & herrde daȝȝwhammliȝ. Hallf ferþe ȝer þe laferrd" so hallf ferþe means 3½, "halvfjerde". [1] http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/83402 http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/83402
- 9y ago
- inetknght 9y agoYou are thoroughly demonstrating that "[common] sense" is a product of environment and teaching; what makes sense to one person does not necessarily make sense to another.