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Congrats. Some German natives may argue that the time short forms are wrong as they prefer "dreiviertel" instead of "viertel vor".
by rwoerz 11mo ago
Congrats.
Some German natives may argue that the time short forms are wrong as they prefer "dreiviertel" instead of "viertel vor".
- brettermeier 11mo agoStay with "viertel vor" please :D Well, it depends on where you are in germany...
- rob74 11mo agoLet's not get started with that... those same people also say "viertel vier" to mean 3:15 (one quarter of the "fourth hour" has passed), which is really confusing to the uninitiated, so "viertel nach"/"viertel vor" is preferable IMHO...
- ce4 11mo agoIt does make sense though (once you know where it comes from): Before the ubiquity of watches, time was announced using church clocks and bell strikes. There's a big bell for hours (low pitch) and a smaller one for announcing quarters (higher pitch). Signalling zero is not possible using "zero bell strikes", so 00:00 is signalled by 4 strikes of the quarters bell and 12 strikes of the hour bell. Thus, the sequences go like: 11:15 1x quarter bell 11:30 2x quarter bell 11:45 3x quarter bell 12:00 4x quarter bell + 1x hour bell Basically it makes sense then as all the quarters belong to the same hour.
- 1718627440 11mo agoYes. The other explanation is that time is nothing special, it gets just counted like everything else. You wouldn't say it's a quarter to a full cake either.
- rob74 11mo agoIf we follow your argument, the number 3.25 would be read "point two five to four" istead of "three point two five". Which is to say, the fact that the quarters are mentioned in connection to the next hour, not the previous one, is indeed unusual.
- 1718627440 11mo agoQuarters are named by the hour they are in, neither the one previous or after. The hour number four of the day starts at 3:01 (or 3:00:01 with precision in seconds) and is complete by 4:00, it's the same mistake that people make with centuries. 'dreiviertel Vier' is short for 'dreiviertel der vierten Stunde des Tages'.
- usr1106 11mo agoI have used those time expressions for over 55 years. Never thought about the explanation.
- 1718627440 11mo agoWe can agree that there is a big disagreement, but "viertel nach"/"viertel vor" just sounds plain wrong to me.
- chopin 11mo agoIt's absolutely correct German. Native speaker here.
- 1718627440 11mo agoMe too. I know. Doesn't change that it sounds plain wrong to me. I guess probably how "dreiviertel X" sounds to you and others. Germany isn't uniform and only a nation state for some short time. If I try to rationalize it, it is probably that a quarter (to me) is not a distance or difference, but a single thing. So my internal parser expects a Genitiv or another thing after it, not a preposition like 'vor' or 'nach'. 'Zehn Minuten vor/nach X' sounds fine to me, 'eine viertel Stunde vor/nach X' too, but 'viertel vor/nach X' just doesn't.
- hutattedonmyarm 11mo agoit's still correct and should be at least accepted as such, even if not explicitly taught
- dvdgsng 11mo agoLet's not get started with that... those same people also say "viertel nach drei" to mean 3:15 (one quarter after the "third hour" has passed), which is really confusing to the uninitiated, so "viertel vier" is preferable IMHO... Yeah? Well, you know, thats just like uh your opinion, man. And, its dismissive and ignorant. IMHO.