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About the time
Message de werriy58 posté le 01-05-2005 à 17:23:40 (S | E | F | I)
Hello every member(s),
About the time, I learned only onesort way to ask time.
What time is it ? There is another way to ask time to someone ? And I learned to say a.m. in the morning and p.m. in the afternoon.
what time is it ?
British:
1. It's eight o'clock a.m.
2. It's one p.m.
3. It's five past ten a.m.
4. It's a quarter past eleven
5. It's half past ten a.m.
6. It's eleven p.m.
American:
1. It's eight o'clock a.m.
2. It's thirteen hours
3. It's five past ten
4. It's a quarter eleven
5. It's thirty ten
6. It's twenty-three hours
Does Is this difference is true? Why? Who can tell us more about?
Werriy
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Edité par serena le 01-05-2005 17:40
As there's more than one example, I'd say : "Are these differences true?"
Message de werriy58 posté le 01-05-2005 à 17:23:40 (S | E | F | I)
Hello every member(
About the time, I learned only one
What time is it ? There is another way to ask time to someone ? And I learned to say a.m. in the morning and p.m. in the afternoon.
what time is it ?
British:
1. It's eight o'clock a.m.
2. It's one p.m.
3. It's five past ten a.m.
4. It's a quarter past eleven
5. It's half past ten a.m.
6. It's eleven p.m.
American:
1. It's eight o'clock a.m.
2. It's thirteen hours
3. It's five past ten
4. It's a quarter eleven
5. It's thirty ten
6. It's twenty-three hours
Werriy
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Edité par serena le 01-05-2005 17:40
As there's more than one example, I'd say : "Are these differences true?"

Réponse: About the time de serena, postée le 01-05-2005 à 18:25:06 (S | E)
Hello werriy,
I'll try to explain what seems to be strange. I'm talking about the American way you wrote in the sentences 2, 4, 5 and 6.
2. It's thirteen hours.
6. It's twenty-three hours.
I know that in the military style, we can say "1300 hours" (thirteen hundred) which means "13 heures". Did you forget to add the "hundred" here?
4. It's a quarter eleven
Maybe you mean: It's a quarter OF eleven = a quarter TO 11.
And I know this is British English.
5. It's thirty ten (isn’t it thirteen ?)
If it is, then it’s correct. It means "it’s 13:10 = 10 past one p.m"
You can also say:
- it’s 20 after 6 = 20 past 6 (also British)
- it’s a quarter past. / it’s 20 to.
Ex : the train arrives at 7 to 12 and leaves at a quarter past (12) (no need repeating 12 here.)
= Le train arrive à midi moins 7 minutes et repart à midi 15 (et quart).
Let's wait for other opinions.

Réponse: About the time de traviskidd, postée le 02-05-2005 à 06:43:53 (S | E)
Here is the American way. The essential difference from the British way is that we almost never use the word "past".
1. eight o'clock a.m.
2. one p.m. (this is one hour after noon)
3. ten-oh-five a.m.
4. eleven-fifteen / quarter after eleven
5. ten-thirty a.m. ("half past ten" is acceptable but uncommon)
6. eleven p.m. (this is one hour before midnight)
Some further examples:
7. nine-forty-five / quarter ['til/to/of] ten
(the preposition varies geographically; in the South we usually use 'til.)
8. nine-fifty-five / five ['til/to/of] ten
9. twelve a.m. / twelve midnight / midnight
10. twelve p.m. / twelve noon / noon.
11. The ten o'clock hour (10:00 - 10:59:59.9999...)
12. The top of the ten o'clock hour (10:00)
13. The bottom of the ten o'clock hour (10:30)
I've always found military time strange. For me, if someone tells me "I'll see you in thirteen hundred hours," I figure (after doing a little math) that they're going to see me in about two months!!

Réponse: About the time de ruofei, postée le 02-05-2005 à 13:41:39 (S | E)
Hello werriya,
your first question: is there another way to ask time?
- what time is it?
- what's the time?
- what time do you make it? (it's 6 o'clock by my watch)
Just so you know, there's a great deal of ways of saying 'pile à l'heure':
ex: it's one o'clock sharp, it's one o'clock on the dot/ on the hour/ on the button/ on the nose...

Réponse: About the time de serena, postée le 02-05-2005 à 17:59:57 (S | E)
Hello !
7. nine-forty-five / quarter ['til/to/of] ten
So, as werriy wrote, "It's a quarter eleven" is correct.
Should I conclude that when there’s no preposition, we’re to imply 'til / to / of?
This is hard to get for me as the American hardly ever use "past".
I really liked the way of saying "10:00" (The top of the ten o'clock hour) and "10:30" (The bottom of the ten o'clock hour).

It would be great if we could also say "the left or the right quarter".

Well Travis, see you in 5000 hours then!

PS: Ruofei, I found "one o'clock on the nose" so smart!


Réponse: About the time de traviskidd, postée le 03-05-2005 à 18:46:26 (S | E)
Hi Serena!
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply with my brackets that the omission of the preposition was allowed. You must in fact include one of the prepositions. So no, you cannot simply say "quarter eleven". However, you can in fact omit the hour if it is understood or unimportant.
"What time is it?"
"Quarter 'til."
"Quarter 'til what?"
"Eleven."
"So it's 10:45?"
"Yes indeed; your time-telling skills are impeccable!"

"Quarter 'til" and "quarter after", as well as the "top" and "bottom" of an hour, are terms often used by national news networks like CNN, which broadcast to many time zones, so they can't really mention the hour in their announcements.
Coming up at the bottom of the hour here on CNN, we'll have an in-depth look inside the war in Iraq, at the toll it is taking on the soldiers as well as on their families back home. Then at quarter 'til, we'll have the famous chef Jacques Gâteau who will show us how to make a delicious chocolate fondue!

Réponse: About the time de werriy58, postée le 03-05-2005 à 19:17:15 (S | E)
Hi Traviskidd and serena,
I understand your lesson both of them, but pleaseTraviskidd your example (some further examples) 11. The ten o'clock hour (10:00 - 10:59:59.9999...) is blur for me, because 10:59:59.9999 become 11:00
(eleven) I guess ? So I understand you say The ten o'clock hour but
I mes understood you say 10:59:59.9999 And then ('til) means until ?
Thank you. werriy
Réponse: About the time de serena, postée le 03-05-2005 à 22:59:47 (S | E)
Ok Travis, thank you!

So what I said first is right.
And your examples are always so pleasant to read ! The only fact of taking them as jokes let us never forget how to use the difficult points you tell us about.

Werriy, glad to have helped.
Yes, 'til = until.
For "10:00 - 10:59:59.9999...", I'll leave this for Travis.

Réponse: About the time de traviskidd, postée le 04-05-2005 à 08:01:10 (S | E)
Werriy ... by 10:59:59.9999 I simply mean that "the 10:00 hour" does not include 11:00.
Serena ... thank you

Réponse: About the time de serena, postée le 04-05-2005 à 12:11:04 (S | E)
This is exactly what I meant to say !


Réponse: About the time de werriy58, postée le 04-05-2005 à 15:01:51 (S | E)
Hi Traviskidd and Serena,
Thanks a lot
Yours werriy.
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Edité par serena le 04-05-2005 18:27
Réponse: About the time de serena, postée le 04-05-2005 à 18:39:08 (S | E)
You're

With such an opinion about American and British English, I'm afraid our Queen would be very sad !


Well, as for me, I prefer British English.



See you !
Réponse: About the time de werriy58, postée le 05-05-2005 à 14:44:10 (S | E)
Hi serena,
I'm kidding too with your opinion to prefer British, that's good cause it's your feeling. You know our Queen will feel well, because her language (English) is getting many people all over the world with around 514 million people in 2005 and becomes as lingua franca (67 2% American;
16 9% British; 5 8 % Canadian; 4 5 % Australian and 5 5% Other). You see our Queen can be proud.
Thus, don't be afraid. Angles is among the tribes of the origin of England. British is the mother of American so it is the origin. And (England is the angles of the world -angle de la terre- with is influence in English and discovered many countries in the planet) then our Queen is very proud. Be proud serena if your daughter is making more than you. Thank you for our joking here. Werriy
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Edité par serena le 05-05-2005 21:07
It's ok werriy !

