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Similarly, when I moved from the UK to Canada, people often didn't understand what I meant when I said it was "half ten", which is the common way of saying ten
by jammaloo 3mo ago
Similarly, when I moved from the UK to Canada, people often didn't understand what I meant when I said it was "half ten", which is the common way of saying ten thirty, at least where I grew up.
- SanjayMehta 3mo agoI never heard that when I lived in the UK in the 70s, but only in Ireland in the late 90s.
- huflungdung 3mo ago[dead]
- gumby 3mo agoI’m a “quarter past” person but I’ve always been confused by “half ten” (which thankfully isn’t used in Australia). But in German, “half ten” means 9:30, which is make more sense to me (probably because I’m used to how German speech often drops words, which is less common in English)
- NopIdoN 3mo agoFor "half ten" we're just dropping a word from "half past ten". How does one get to "half ten" in German? Is it simply starting from "half to ten"?
- Someone 3mo agoHalfway to ten.
- Kon5ole 3mo ago>How does one get to "half ten" in German? Is it simply starting from "half to ten"? Never thought about it much but I think you're spot on. English uses "half past" and therefore "half 10" means 10:30, whereas most other languages use "half to" which causes "half 10" to mean 9:30. One would think this should cause confusion for international meetings often enough to be common knowledge, but I didn't know until today...
- gumby 3mo agoYes but it’s uncommon in English to simply drop a word from a sentence while pretty common in German casual discourse. The only other English common case I can think of is the American “I could [not] care less” dropping “not” which is also confusing.
- mjlee 3mo agoNext, go to Germany or the Netherlands where half ten means 9:30.
- a570xyz 3mo agoHalf ten? So.. 5. Got it.
- ezekg 3mo agoI was thinking 10:30.
- robotresearcher 3mo agoSome Americans say ‘a quarter of X’ and even after 30 years I can’t remember if that’s before or after hour X.
- mikestew 3mo agoBefore. Source: born and raised Midwesterner.
- ChoGGi 3mo agoAs a Canadian, I've never heard anyone say half ten. I do hear half past ten regularly, so you'd figure it'd click :)