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by jsudhams 3335 days ago
Why is the new generation not using exact time like 6:45 5:30 etc? It is very confusing for non english speaker.Because we have to convert half to 30 and past to past and hour. Hmmm.... in recent trip two times is missed correct time and asked 6:45 or 7:15 tell me exact time. Is it very difficult for the people who are used say in work like half past seven to say 7:30 ?
3 comments
tossaway1 3335 days ago
> Why is the new generation not using exact time like 6:45 5:30 etc?

New generation? My grandparents said things like "half past" and "quarter till" and they were born 100+ years ago.

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Broken_Hippo 3335 days ago
> Why is the new generation not using exact time like 6:45 5:30 etc? It is very confusing for non english speaker

I completely understand why it is confusing. It isn't limited to younger folks, however. The reason for this is simply because exact time often doesn't matter.

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jurie 3335 days 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?

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mutatio 3335 days ago
"Quarter four" we'd never say, did you mean "quarter to four" - in which case it's 3:45.
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pbhjpbhj 3335 days ago
It'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.

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jt2190 3335 days ago
Perhaps he meant to write: "quarter of four". As opposed to: "quarter to four".
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abritinthebay 3335 days ago
Which would still be really strange and not understood by most Brits (source: am Brit)
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sjrd 3335 days ago
In 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.

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the_mitsuhiko 3335 days ago
Quarter four in German is 3:15
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