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Comment by mikestew | Hacker News Reader

The same “kids across the street” I reference in another comment needed translation from “quarter to eleven” when they’d ask the time. Makes sense given they couldn’t read an analog face at the time.

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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 thirty, at least where I grew up.

I never heard that when I lived in the UK in the 70s, but only in Ireland in the late 90s.

I’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)

For "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"?

Halfway to ten.

05:00

This actually makes more sense!

>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...

“Halfway to” -> “half”

Well we only disagree 1/60 of the time so it's probably fine as long as we avoid meetings at exactly the half hour.

English thinkers might also want to consider the fact that 0930 is half-way through hour 10

Yes 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.

Next, go to Germany or the Netherlands where half ten means 9:30.

Half ten? So.. 5. Got it.

I was thinking 10:30.

Some Americans say ‘a quarter of X’ and even after 30 years I can’t remember if that’s before or after hour X.

Before. Source: born and raised Midwesterner.

As a Canadian, I've never heard anyone say half ten. I do hear half past ten regularly, so you'd figure it'd click :)

My 18 year old daughter is the same (and also can't read an analog clock). Despite me using "quarter to," "quarter past," and "half past" regularly throughout her life. And we having analog clocks in most communal spaces in our house. And we drilled her on analog clocks for two summers in a row...

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