How do you Brits tell time? (1 Viewer)

[Andrew W]

In the US we use very boring terms like "nine thirty" for 9:30 where Brits say "half past nine" which sound much more civilized.

What do you say for something like 9:23? do you say "twenty three past nine" or do you round up and just say "half past"?

Would 9:40 be "two thirds past nine"?

What about "quarter til ..." or expression for before the hour?

Andy

 

[BrianB]

nine twenty three.

twenty minutes to ten.
quarter till three = 2:45.
quarter past three = 3:15.

half nine = 9:30

 

[Jack Briggs]

How do you Brits tell time?

They look at their watches?

 

[andrew markworthy]

It tends to be the case that Brits will use the 'past' and 'to' system for whole multiples of five minutes. Thus:

9.05 = 'five past nine'
9.10 = 'ten past nine'
etc to
9.30 = 'half past nine'
then
9.35 = 'twenty=-five to ten' etc

It would be more usual to say 'five past nine' rather than 'five *minutes* past nine'.

For minutes other than whole multiples of five, we would tend to use the 'numerical readout' system. Thus, 9.23 would be called '9.23' rather than '23 minutes past nine'. That is, if we didn't approximate it to the nearest multiple of five. Thus, 9.23 might become 'it's just gone twenty past nine' or 'it's nearly twenty-five past nine'.

All this tends to apply to reading the time from an analogue face. For digital clocks, the chances are that someone will just read the digital readout, and 9.30 would be read out as '9.30'.

 

[Yee-Ming]

In the US we use very boring terms like "nine thirty" for 9:30 where Brits say "half past nine" which sound much more civilized.

not sure if it really "sounds more civilized". I've always thought it easier to tell time like reading off a digital display, even when wearing an analogue watch or looking at a clock.

Trivia: Germans use the same "quarter to" or "five past" way of telling time, but on the half hour, their equivalent is "half to", not "half past". so using the 9:30 example, they would say "halb zehn", i.e. half ten -- not half nine.

 

[Andrew W]

For digital clocks, the chances are that someone will just read the digital readout, and 9.30 would be read out as '9.30'.

Ahh, but we know those that "think digital... is a pretty neat idea." are definitely primitive and uncivilized.


Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Andrew, I don't know what US you live in, but I hear people saying half past all the time, but quite often on TV I hear Brits saying half nine or whatever. I use terms such as ten til or quarter after and I hear many others do the same.

 

[Rachael B]

What a silly thread! Everybody know the Brits tell time by the shadows at Stonehenge.

 

[Gary Harris]

In Canada it's pretty common to say "after" & "to", as in 20 after 10, & quarter to 11.