Nine after a quarter
My father is French-Canadian and speaks very little English. My husband, on the other hand, speaks very little French. As a result, we get some pretty funny voicemails from my dad. He once called and said "Hi. It is nine after a quarter (...)"! It's hard for him to grasp the differences in telling time in English and in French. In English, we say "a quarter to", and "a quarter after", while in French, it's ___ et quart, and ___ moins quart. In English, we don't say "it's noon and a half", for instance, while in Canadian French, it's perfectly alright to say il est midi et demi. I'm sure he'll grasp it eventually, but I think his effort is very sweet.
Sent by: Roxanne
Comments
In this part of England we say "a quarter to nine" and "a quarter past nine". I have not heard anyone say "a quarter after nine" and of course it is "half past 12" not half after 12.
Mandarin Chinese structure starts with the missing part "It's short of one quarter 6 o' clock". With no direct equivalent of am and pm instead designations such as "early morning", "evening", etc. clarify which 6 you mean, so you end up with "It's early morning short of one quarter 6 o'clock".
More challenging is German/Dutch convention where one changes hours at the half, in English it is half PAST 6, in German half TO 7. With most people abbreviating informally to "half 6" you need to be really sure whether you mean 6:30 or 7:30
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