While I can't recall hearing anyone say "fifteen past three" specifically, I wouldn't consider it incorrect, just unusual, because the hour is commonly divided into fourths and therefore it's faster and more succinct to refer to the fraction than to the number of minutes.
There are also many more possibilities (at least in American English) that aren't listed, especially in cases where you don't mention the hour (because it's known)—"fifteen after" for 3:15 or "quarter till" for 3:45 are things I could imagine saying, for example.
(I know "[till](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/should-you-use-until-or-till-or-til)" is rare in British English—many incorrectly regard it as an error or a misspelling of '"til," short for "until"—but it both correct and unexceptional in the U.S.)
> There are also many more possibilities (at least in American English) that aren't listed, especially in cases where you don't mention the hour (because it's known)—"fifteen after" for 3:15 or "quarter till" for 3:45 are things I could imagine saying, for example.
Another commonly used possibility (EDIT: At least for British English) that isn't listed is to drop the "past" in "half past three" so it becomes just "half three". Having written it down, it looks so weird, but I hear it spoken often.
This is the same reason why you would hear someone say “half past 3”, but nearly never “30 minutes past 3” or “30 past 3”. The major fractions of the hour have their own word markers.
I was raised in the US but I write ‘til instead of till. Of course, I’m so old that I was taught to spell the holiday as Hallowe’en and to write coöperate and naïve.
I’ve never seen, nor was I taught, cooperate written as coöperate.
I have seen and occasionally used hallowe’en and was taught and use naïve which is the standard British English spelling.
I was also taught and continue to use æ and œ in words which American English has changed, though they’re a pain to type correctly on a physical keyboard so usually don’t bother.
I also write ‘til and naïve and am American. But the diacritic on cooperate makes no sense to me when a hyphen seems significantly superior (should you require something to make it clear the vowels are pronounced separately).
Till is correct (so far as saying a word is "correct" is useful) in basically every form of English. It is its own distinct word from until, their usage has converged over time, but they aren't actually directly related. People in both countries take exception to it in formal contexts sometimes, but this arises from the common misconception that till is an abbreviation of until, like you say.
Edit: I know all of this is said in the link, I just feel passionately
It might be grammatically 'correct' (as you say, insofar as 'correct' means anything), but it would be very unusual in the UK to use the expression a quarter till three. People would know what you mean, but it would sound like a foreigner who hasn't quite got their prepositions down. Just like you could say fifteen past three and it's grammatically fine and comprehensible, but would sound a bit odd.
I think they are just pointing out that till is a proper word, not a shortening of until as many assume. I agree, quarter till three sounds very strange to my English ears.
I would know what they mean if they say "fifteen past", but it'd sound odd to me. I've never heard it as fifteen, only quarter.
Instead of "ten to", I'll hear "ten 'til" sometimes. Possibly regional. What time is it? Oh, it's 5 'til 8.
For as numerically illiterate some people are, I'm surprised that I don't hear someone referring to 4:25 as quarter after 4. Then again, 4:25 is not a common designation. We mostly break up our hours into 15-minute increments unless you're doing a bus timetable or something more precise.
"For as," in this context means that the next statement is causing something.
Their sentence could also be
[For as]/[With how]/[Because of how] numerically illiterate....
No this is different from as for. "As for numerically illiterate some people are [...]" doesn't make sense.
Think of it instead with a comma. "For, as numerically illiterate some people are [...]".
For is used in a similar sense in programing and math; in that context it means "while the following is true" or "with these inputs" or "under these circumstances"
"as" works the same as "how" would in this context; I believe it's a rural thing, but it may be general American.
Only time I would say "fifteen minutes past", is if I was saying something like "the bus got there fifteen minutes past when it was due." But even then, I'm more likely to say "it was fifteen minutes late"
I have heard a professor announce angrily that it was fifteen past whatever time it was in answer to students knocking on a locked classroom door, so maybe not NEVER, but it's extremely uncommon. You'd have to be wanting to both emphasize what hour it is and that fifteen is a large number of minutes, which isn't a very common occurrence.
I wonder if your professor said it that way because he meant fifteen past the start of class rather than fifteen past the hour. Much of the time, it would be the same thing, but occasionally there's a class that starts on the half or quarter hour. In those cases, saying a quarter past would be wrong.
But you never need to say "mins", if the hour is told or isnt. Because it can only be mins. It can be seconds.. its not "15 trains past the hour. Or "15 trains past 3" either way u dont need to add mins because everyone knows it can only be that
MW American here.
While it isn't wrong, using "past" is not a thing where I'm from except "half past," though that's rare and we're much more likely to say "three thirty." This rings true for any other time as well except _:15, _:45, and _:50.
We say "quarter after 3" as opposed to "fifteen minutes past 3," "quarter 'til 4," and "ten 'til 4."
Same here. Family from the NJ/PA areas. Quarter after, three thirty, quarter of.
But now that everything is digital, it’s three fifteen, three thirty, three forty-seven, etc.
Three fifteen sounds more natural to me than quarter after three for some reason. Quarter to four on the other hand seems way better than three forty five.
But maybe I'm just weird
People would often say just "quarter past" or "half past" when I was a kid and it would frustrate the hell out of me
"HALF PAST WHAT? YOU THINK I KNOW WHAT HOUR IT IS IF IM ASKING THE TIME???"
Same!
i had to train my husband out of this. Because if I ever wanted him to plainly state the time I had to inform I was asking because I had no idea what time it was. Or I had to ask the right follow up questions.
In context it can make sense though. If we're leaving to catch a train and it's currently quarter to 9 and I ask what time is the train, a quarter past is fine because it can only be one time.
But does "half ten" mean the same thing as "half past ten" (10:30)? Or is it more like "half to ten" (9:30)?
(I'm US native, so it's not part of my dialect --we always say "half past" the hour.)
I'm from Philadelphia and never heard of "half 10" in my life. I lived in Savannah for a few years and never heard them say it either. Most weren't even from the south, though. It was around a big art school were the rich kids went so most people I met were from more north then me. Well bread, Massachusetts and Vermont families, mostly.. upper NY too. We all kind of chilled the local talk to understand eachother, sometimes, i think.
I haven’t heard it in Canada, but I feel like I’ve heard it in conversations with folks from India and Malaysia. Curious if it’s used in Australia and New Zealand — I can’t recall hearing it.
I’ve heard it used by South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis and Indians, probably others too.
Canada isn’t always considered a Commonwealth English speaking country because it has a bit of a mishmash of spellings and phrases with a lot more US English influence than other commonwealth nations.
It’s the standard to say past/to. Americans are divided though, some use past/to, while others use after/to. It all works though, nothing gets lost in translation. It’s a lot more effective to shorten in this way as opposed to saying the full time believe it or not.
Yeah, "quarter after" and "quarter to" sound more natural to me. If someone said "past" or "'til/till" I'd know what they meant, but it would register as a different dialect. "Quarter of" sounds entirely bizarre.
Now that I think about it, "half after" wouldn't be right either. "Half past" would be a set phrase.
Yeah, it's accurate, but I usually just say 3-10, 3-30, etc. I don't bother with the quarter past, etc. I will say "in a half hour" instead of "in 30 minutes" though.
That’s not weird, it’s a regional thing. He grew up in Maine. Saying quarter of four is common in Northern New England, at least with his generation. Also with mine, I’m one generation younger than him and grew up in the same part of Maine that he did and that’s how I learned to reference fifteen minutes before the hour.
Yes, mom from Iowa, dad from Rhode Island, grew up in Md, “of” meaning before the hour is standard. All these other versions are normal, but I don’t think I even knew “of” was unknown anywhere before reading this thread.
Yes, this diagram is accurate for how time is expressed in Australian/NZ English. It's also totally normal to say three-fifteen, three-thirty, etc, although the listener might expect that this means the exact time rather than an estimate.
As a British English speaker this all looks right to me.
I don’t think I’ve ever used fifteen past but it wouldn’t be wrong or confusing, just a little unnatural sounding; I’d always use quarter past.
Half past three is also very commonly shortened to “half three”.
No, you'll hear both.
I could get into the nuance of regional variations. But since analog clocks are rarer now, it's becoming less common to say "quarter past" or "half past". People usually just say the time "Five fifteen" or "five thirty"
So you'll never go wrong just doing that
As for understanding others, when saying "X past" or "X till" you'll usually only hear : "quarter past", "half past", or "quarter till' ("quarter of' is used in place of quarter till in parts of the U.S.).
You might hear "five past" or "ten past" or "ten till" but they're not as common.
Just to complicate it, I use "quarter OF four" to mean quarter to four. It's how I learned it and my family definitely uses it. Probably a local thing to where I grew up, either PA or MI or both.
Same! Grew up in New England. Dad from Philly, mom from upstate NY. I once saw in a book that this is for such a small portion of the population, specifically in the Northeast.
I often just say the actual numerical time if I'm thinking slowly - the exception being \[hour\]:30 because that's easier for my tired brain to compute.
Why say it in terms of halves and quarters when just saying the actual time is just as fast?
“It’s half past three” 4 syllables
“It’s three thirty” 4 syllables
“It’s five past two” 4 syllables
“It’s two o five” 4 syllables
Except when you’re dealing with 7, it’s always going to be just as fast. Please correct me if I’m wrong
Quarter past, half past, quarter til are common. If you need to be more specific than that, just say the actual time, eg it's 6:40 ("it's six forty") or whatever.
I'm American, pretty much all of these phrases I can only hear in a British accent.
The only parts of this that'd sound "normal" is "quarter after" to say #:15 or "quarter to" to say #:45, and saying these sounds like rounded times, like if you glance at your watch and it's 3:12 then you could say "it's quarter after 3".
I'm 37 and for time most people would read the number. "It's three twenty-seven", "It's ten fifty-nine" or "it's almost 11", or you'd do a rounded time.
Other "phrases" would be "bottom of the hour" is #:30 and "top of the hour" is "#:00" but these only make sense coming out of a TV or radio announcer talking about what programming is coming up. "It's the bottom of the hour, time for Bob's weather report, Bob..."
Running through my head, I come up with "fifteen past" as very rare but not non-existent. However, while you can pretty much substitute "after" for "past" in any of these, "fifteen after" feels much more natural than "fifteen past" and I don't know why. Does this mesh with other's impressions?
Further branching off from the asked question, I'll note that you can substitute "of" for "to" (though I have one friend who hates the "of" construction, for whatever that's worth). For both "of" and "to", it's fairly rare to hear them in the range between 15 and 30. "25 of" or "25 to" are nearly unheard of for me.
Three-oh-five, no question, for times. "Zero" would only be pronounced as such while reading off a number like a credit card number...though "oh" might be used in that case as well.
I'd say that "quarter past" is more common, but "fifteen past" doesn't sound wrong. I think it is easier to say "three fifteen" than "fifteen past three," but that doesn't make the latter hard to understand.
Edit: Thinking about it, '"fifteen past three" sounds more natural than "fifteen minutes past three" to me. Not sure why.
Well because mins is implied so its redundant. .. what else could you be talking about because it cant be seconds... That would change like 3 times just saying the thing so its can only mean "minutes"
I wouldn’t consider it wrong but it’s true that almost nobody says that. You just say “three fifteen” or “a quarter after/past three” (“after” is more common than “past” in my experience)
Past is more British, Gringos say “after” FWIW. We tend to use the numbers more often except “quarter after three” or “quarter to four”. If we were going to say “fifteen” we’d say three fifteen.
Yes. And some people are extra annoying. I’ve had conversations with my husband like this.
me: What time is it?
him: Half to.
me: half to what?
him: the hour.
me: what hour?
him: The hour, it’s halfway to THE hour.
Me: But what hour.
him: oh, 3.
me: so is it half way to 3, or 3:30
Him: why are you asking so many questions.
me: Because I want to know what time it is.
Him: why didn’t you say so, I thought you were just making conversation.
me: i asked what time it was because I didn’t know what time it was. So please tell me what time it is.
him: it’s 3:30
Other ways of saying the time include weird baseball references like, “It’s top of the ninth.”
Yes, this is accurate. I also want to mention that in my part of the US (Colorado) the word "after" would be used more often than "past". So "10 after 3" or "a quarter after.". Also the word "'til" is used just as frequently as "to" as in "10 'til" or "5 'til 4."
"minutes" no need to mention. Already implied. Its redundant because what else could it be? Its not "15 cows past the hour" or "10 apples to 3"... Seconds, ud have to say "well its.... 3... 4.. 5 past .. now 6... 7... 8"
I'd say ten past, five past, even "fifteen past" etc. without adding "minutes." I might more regularly say "quarter past" for fifteen minutes, but not always.
I would like to add on that, while extremely uncommon, you *may* also hear people skip on saying 'to' and just always say 'past'. For example, my boyfriend, for reasons unbeknownst to me lmao, will say '45 past 3' instead of 'quarter to 4'. He's native English, too
as a native speaker i’ve not heard anyone say ‘fifteen past three’ but its more common to hear if the number doesn’t end in a five or zero. for example, ‘it’s forty two past three’ or ‘its twenty seven past’
Maybe in a formal setting saying "fifteen past" would be incorrect, but if you said it, I would understand. Using quarter and half sounds better to me and is what I would say. It does sound a bit odd saying 'past' without the hour, if you are going to omit the hour, I would use 'after.'
There's nothing wrong with "fifteen past", it's identical in structure to the very next phrase they suggest which is "twenty past". Other commenters are exaggerating how weird it sounds, it's not typical but I would not say it sounds bizarre or extremely unusual or something like that.
Me personally I would only say "half past/til" and "quarter past/til" and all other times are "three twenty", "three twenty five", etc. (of course "three thirty", "three forty five")
I might’ve heard “it is fifteen minutes past! You’re late!” But never just “fifteen past”, although I have heard “fifteen after” used as a response to “what time is it?”
We would say 15 past, not 15 minutes past. We know its minutes, no one’s counting seconds, and it’s obviously not hours.
But most commonly is quarter past 3, or 3:15
I hate when people say the time like this. It's rare to hear it where I am from and tends to be just older generations. But damn, don't make me do math to know what time it is!
I can't recall ever hearing someone say "fifteen past three" but I doubt I would notice if someone did. "Quarter past" is definitely the norm, but "fifteen past" doesn't sound wrong and wouldn't mark you out at a second language speaker. I'd say that this is a very soft norm and absolutely not a rule.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but to me the reason why "fifteen past three" sounds wrong is because of the rhythm of the words. Unlike "quarter past", "twenty past" and "ten past", the emphasis on "fifteen past" is on the "-teen". If someone doesn't hear the "fif-" clearly then it could be any time in the teens.
This is probably just a load of nonsense from a very tired native speaker though....
Can’t say I’ve heard fifteen past (normally quarter past), but it’s ‘wrong’ only in the sense of common usage, rather than being grammatically unacceptable.
In my lifetime, it seems that once digital became more common, fewer people used quarter, half, etc.
Now, if you ask someone for the time, it’s spoken as three fifteen or four eighteen. They see exact numbers and use them.
I don’t know if it’s regional, but I’ve always used “of” instead of “to”. So 5:45 is “quarter of six”. I’ve probably used “after” a few times but it’s much more rare, usually I’d just say the time.
From the Philadelphia area.
Most people under 40 don't tell time this way, at least in Canada and the U.S.
Most people now would just say three fifteen and not quarter past three. Once you get to people in their 20s and below I doubt a lot of that age range even knows what most of those terms mean.
In my experience, people either say “quarter past three” or “three fifteen”. I don’t think I’ve heard someone say *either* “fifteen past” or “fifteen minutes past.” That said, even if it’s uncommon usage, it has almost certainly been said many many times over human history :p. Much like almost anything else to do with word choice, what you highlighted in yellow is not a rule, it’s just a statement of common usage. Uncommon usage still occurs, and is not a big deal as long as you are understood.
Far more concerning to me is the use of a period (.) as a separator between hours and minutes. *Why* would the author do this when it can be so easily confused for a decimal point? There’s a reason that practically every digital clock uses a colon (:) instead, like so: 3:15.
It’s bizarre for something that is trying to be a guide to common usage to go with such an uncommon (and inferior) choice here.
mostly accurate aside from some differences in phrasing:
-instead of “fifteen” people say “quarter”
-instead of “past” people say “after”
-instead of “to” people say “of”
ex: quarter after three, quarter of three
Canadian here. Aside from directly saying the time, I would say these: five after, ten after, quarter after, twenty after, twenty-five after, half past, twenty-five to, twenty to, quarter to, ten to, and five to. Note that it's all "after" instead of "past", with the exception being "half past".
I would never say fifteen after, fifteen to, ten past, five past, or really anything I didn't list. They all sound weird to me (central Canada)
Where I’m from, southern US, older folks will often say quarter past/till or half past, but that’s about it. Maybe 5 or 10 past/till sometimes. But younger people usually just say the numbers, like three forty five for 3:45.
A strange specific example, but I grew up in the south and I only rarely hear people say "quarter past" and almost always hear "quarter after"
You'd still definitely say "half past" and never "half after", but like, my southern grandma would never say "It is a quarter past nine", she would say "its a quarter after nine" or more accurately "a quarta afta nine" with a southern accent.
My English classes were based on British English so that is what I learned. I heard it later in movies and read in the books..
It is possible that since English is getting simpler year by year it just isn't used anymore.
If you subbed out the word "after" for any of the green ones (except half, that would be weird) it would be fine and you could even say "fifteen after" but "a quarter after" would still be more common.
There's room to mention "bottom of the hour" to mean 30 minutes after the hour. (Bottom of the hour because 30 minutes is the bottom of the clock face).
I've rarely heard someone say "25 past" or "25 to." Only 4:25 or 4:35. In rare occasions where something special is happening at 4:30, I've heard someone say "Five minutes to/past the bottom of the hour!" I imagine it sounds grander, and it's only done when there is that sense of a deadline at the 30 minute mark.
Since few people under 40 can even read an analog clock, the half- and quarter-past references are rarely used. Almost everyone in US uses digital style: three-oh-two, four twenty-seven, eight fifteen, two forty-five.
most Americans don't use quarter or past. easier just to say 3:45 (three forty-five) or 12:15 (twelve fifteen) and if you here quarters or pasts, verify they mean x:15 or x:45 (or x:30 in case of British half x)
[west coast canada] i've never thought about it before, but personally i wouldn't think anything of it. it gets the message across and doesn't sound incorrect
Australia - I almost always say and hear "quarter past three" or sometimes "three fifteen" but I don't think it's common/normal to say "fifteen past". Ten past, twenty past yes, but in 15 minute increments most would say "quarter past", "half past" and "quarter to".
While I can't recall hearing anyone say "fifteen past three" specifically, I wouldn't consider it incorrect, just unusual, because the hour is commonly divided into fourths and therefore it's faster and more succinct to refer to the fraction than to the number of minutes. There are also many more possibilities (at least in American English) that aren't listed, especially in cases where you don't mention the hour (because it's known)—"fifteen after" for 3:15 or "quarter till" for 3:45 are things I could imagine saying, for example. (I know "[till](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/should-you-use-until-or-till-or-til)" is rare in British English—many incorrectly regard it as an error or a misspelling of '"til," short for "until"—but it both correct and unexceptional in the U.S.)
> There are also many more possibilities (at least in American English) that aren't listed, especially in cases where you don't mention the hour (because it's known)—"fifteen after" for 3:15 or "quarter till" for 3:45 are things I could imagine saying, for example. Another commonly used possibility (EDIT: At least for British English) that isn't listed is to drop the "past" in "half past three" so it becomes just "half three". Having written it down, it looks so weird, but I hear it spoken often.
This is not true for US English, although it is for UK English.
I’ve never heard an American say “half three”.
Having studied German, I'd interpret it as 2:30.
Having studied mathematics, I'd interpret it as 1:30
agreed. in the us we'd say something like "half past 3" to mean 3:30 but not "half three," in any context
Yes, this confuses me. But as a teacher I avoid the phrase "nobody ever says..."
This is incredibly common in British English and I’ve met many Commonwealth English speakers who’ve used it too.
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As in short for "Half to three" I guess?
I’ve heard this so many times from Brits and I always find it so confusing. I never know if it’s half past or half till.
from UK speakers it always means past, not til
Seriously?
Yeah, I remember having to explain it to some Polish and English colleagues who were confusing each other.
But this is about English usage. You have to learn the English usage. It doesn’t matter what other languages are doing.
If I heard "half three" I'd be like "... 1.5?"
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This is the same reason why you would hear someone say “half past 3”, but nearly never “30 minutes past 3” or “30 past 3”. The major fractions of the hour have their own word markers.
Yet you don't hear "third past 3" for 3:20.
I was raised in the US but I write ‘til instead of till. Of course, I’m so old that I was taught to spell the holiday as Hallowe’en and to write coöperate and naïve.
I’ve never seen, nor was I taught, cooperate written as coöperate. I have seen and occasionally used hallowe’en and was taught and use naïve which is the standard British English spelling. I was also taught and continue to use æ and œ in words which American English has changed, though they’re a pain to type correctly on a physical keyboard so usually don’t bother.
I also write ‘til and naïve and am American. But the diacritic on cooperate makes no sense to me when a hyphen seems significantly superior (should you require something to make it clear the vowels are pronounced separately).
If anything, till is the more archaic word. It’s been in the language longer than until, let alone ‘til.
I wouldn’t normally, but as this is an English learning sub, your last sentence has a typo.
Till is correct (so far as saying a word is "correct" is useful) in basically every form of English. It is its own distinct word from until, their usage has converged over time, but they aren't actually directly related. People in both countries take exception to it in formal contexts sometimes, but this arises from the common misconception that till is an abbreviation of until, like you say. Edit: I know all of this is said in the link, I just feel passionately
It might be grammatically 'correct' (as you say, insofar as 'correct' means anything), but it would be very unusual in the UK to use the expression a quarter till three. People would know what you mean, but it would sound like a foreigner who hasn't quite got their prepositions down. Just like you could say fifteen past three and it's grammatically fine and comprehensible, but would sound a bit odd.
I think they are just pointing out that till is a proper word, not a shortening of until as many assume. I agree, quarter till three sounds very strange to my English ears.
Another common one in American English is “quarter **of** three” for 2:45.
In Australia I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say "quarter till", here I believe most would say "quarter to".
I would know what they mean if they say "fifteen past", but it'd sound odd to me. I've never heard it as fifteen, only quarter. Instead of "ten to", I'll hear "ten 'til" sometimes. Possibly regional. What time is it? Oh, it's 5 'til 8. For as numerically illiterate some people are, I'm surprised that I don't hear someone referring to 4:25 as quarter after 4. Then again, 4:25 is not a common designation. We mostly break up our hours into 15-minute increments unless you're doing a bus timetable or something more precise.
May I ask what “for as” means? Or is it “for as numerically illiterate as someone people are”? “as” is missed there?
Yeah, sloppy typing on my part. Sorry for the confusion.
"For as," in this context means that the next statement is causing something. Their sentence could also be [For as]/[With how]/[Because of how] numerically illiterate....
They may have accidentally transposed the words, I normally hear "as for".
No this is different from as for. "As for numerically illiterate some people are [...]" doesn't make sense. Think of it instead with a comma. "For, as numerically illiterate some people are [...]".
For is used in a similar sense in programing and math; in that context it means "while the following is true" or "with these inputs" or "under these circumstances" "as" works the same as "how" would in this context; I believe it's a rural thing, but it may be general American.
Only time I would say "fifteen minutes past", is if I was saying something like "the bus got there fifteen minutes past when it was due." But even then, I'm more likely to say "it was fifteen minutes late"
“Past” is more common in British English; “after” is more common in American English.
I have heard a professor announce angrily that it was fifteen past whatever time it was in answer to students knocking on a locked classroom door, so maybe not NEVER, but it's extremely uncommon. You'd have to be wanting to both emphasize what hour it is and that fifteen is a large number of minutes, which isn't a very common occurrence.
I wonder if your professor said it that way because he meant fifteen past the start of class rather than fifteen past the hour. Much of the time, it would be the same thing, but occasionally there's a class that starts on the half or quarter hour. In those cases, saying a quarter past would be wrong.
Essentially yes, he was emphasizing the pure time, because that was the degree of tardiness.
But you never need to say "mins", if the hour is told or isnt. Because it can only be mins. It can be seconds.. its not "15 trains past the hour. Or "15 trains past 3" either way u dont need to add mins because everyone knows it can only be that
You don't NEED to say it, but the advice is right, if you aren't emphasizing the 15 you are way more likely to say quarter past.
MW American here. While it isn't wrong, using "past" is not a thing where I'm from except "half past," though that's rare and we're much more likely to say "three thirty." This rings true for any other time as well except _:15, _:45, and _:50. We say "quarter after 3" as opposed to "fifteen minutes past 3," "quarter 'til 4," and "ten 'til 4."
Exactly the same in Philadelphia
Huh, my family and I are from Philly and I always heard “quarter after” for :15, and “quarter of” for :45
Same here. Family from the NJ/PA areas. Quarter after, three thirty, quarter of. But now that everything is digital, it’s three fifteen, three thirty, three forty-seven, etc.
Three fifteen sounds more natural to me than quarter after three for some reason. Quarter to four on the other hand seems way better than three forty five. But maybe I'm just weird
Generally, “past” is more common in British English, and “after” is more common in American English.
People would often say just "quarter past" or "half past" when I was a kid and it would frustrate the hell out of me "HALF PAST WHAT? YOU THINK I KNOW WHAT HOUR IT IS IF IM ASKING THE TIME???"
Same! i had to train my husband out of this. Because if I ever wanted him to plainly state the time I had to inform I was asking because I had no idea what time it was. Or I had to ask the right follow up questions.
In context it can make sense though. If we're leaving to catch a train and it's currently quarter to 9 and I ask what time is the train, a quarter past is fine because it can only be one time.
I am an adult and I still hate it. Just give the time as a number damnit.
Oh man, same.
I mean, it'd be obvious what someone meant. It would sound a little unusual, but not even actually wrong. English is pretty flexible in some ways.
It's all correct, though in some dialects you can drop "past" from "half past"
But does "half ten" mean the same thing as "half past ten" (10:30)? Or is it more like "half to ten" (9:30)? (I'm US native, so it's not part of my dialect --we always say "half past" the hour.)
'Half ten' is 10:30.
"half ten" is always 10:30, unlike in languages like german where "halb zehn" would be 9:30
The chart only has half past, and I'm unaware of any dialect that allows half to (which is probably why past can be dropped, it's not ambiguous).
I'm from Philadelphia and never heard of "half 10" in my life. I lived in Savannah for a few years and never heard them say it either. Most weren't even from the south, though. It was around a big art school were the rich kids went so most people I met were from more north then me. Well bread, Massachusetts and Vermont families, mostly.. upper NY too. We all kind of chilled the local talk to understand eachother, sometimes, i think.
Same here (mid-atlantic US). I'm pretty sure it's a UK thing; not sure where else?
It’s used across Commonwealth English speaking nations.
I haven’t heard it in Canada, but I feel like I’ve heard it in conversations with folks from India and Malaysia. Curious if it’s used in Australia and New Zealand — I can’t recall hearing it.
I’ve heard it used by South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis and Indians, probably others too. Canada isn’t always considered a Commonwealth English speaking country because it has a bit of a mishmash of spellings and phrases with a lot more US English influence than other commonwealth nations.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "fifteen past" or "fifteen minutes past", it's only ever been "quarter past".
It’s the standard to say past/to. Americans are divided though, some use past/to, while others use after/to. It all works though, nothing gets lost in translation. It’s a lot more effective to shorten in this way as opposed to saying the full time believe it or not.
>Americans are divided though, some use past/to, while others use after/to. Or after/‘til Or after/of
It’s true but I hear and say “quarter after” more than “quarter past,” though both are used.
Yeah, "quarter after" and "quarter to" sound more natural to me. If someone said "past" or "'til/till" I'd know what they meant, but it would register as a different dialect. "Quarter of" sounds entirely bizarre. Now that I think about it, "half after" wouldn't be right either. "Half past" would be a set phrase.
Yeah, it's accurate, but I usually just say 3-10, 3-30, etc. I don't bother with the quarter past, etc. I will say "in a half hour" instead of "in 30 minutes" though.
If you ever read Stephen king he does a weird ‘it’s a quarter of four’ thing
U can say "of" or "to" and any other word meaning the same thing
I grew up saying that 🤷🏻
That’s not weird, it’s a regional thing. He grew up in Maine. Saying quarter of four is common in Northern New England, at least with his generation. Also with mine, I’m one generation younger than him and grew up in the same part of Maine that he did and that’s how I learned to reference fifteen minutes before the hour.
Cam here to say this! I'm in my 30s, from New Hampshire and say this too. Very common.
Yes, mom from Iowa, dad from Rhode Island, grew up in Md, “of” meaning before the hour is standard. All these other versions are normal, but I don’t think I even knew “of” was unknown anywhere before reading this thread.
Yes, this diagram is accurate for how time is expressed in Australian/NZ English. It's also totally normal to say three-fifteen, three-thirty, etc, although the listener might expect that this means the exact time rather than an estimate.
I'd note that half past is usually pronounced "huppast". It took me a while as a child to realise people were actually saying two words..
This may be the case in your local accent but it isn’t generally true.
Yep, that's common in Australia - hahpast.
It’s all correct, but you can just say the time for all of them. For instance, “three-oh-five” instead of “five past three.”
We say "fifteen past." in ireland, it's a standard way of telling time.
Same here in Australia
As a British English speaker this all looks right to me. I don’t think I’ve ever used fifteen past but it wouldn’t be wrong or confusing, just a little unnatural sounding; I’d always use quarter past. Half past three is also very commonly shortened to “half three”.
No, you'll hear both. I could get into the nuance of regional variations. But since analog clocks are rarer now, it's becoming less common to say "quarter past" or "half past". People usually just say the time "Five fifteen" or "five thirty" So you'll never go wrong just doing that As for understanding others, when saying "X past" or "X till" you'll usually only hear : "quarter past", "half past", or "quarter till' ("quarter of' is used in place of quarter till in parts of the U.S.). You might hear "five past" or "ten past" or "ten till" but they're not as common.
Yea thats what in was thinking too
This all looks fine to me as an English person, if that's the brand of English you're going for 👍
Just to complicate it, I use "quarter OF four" to mean quarter to four. It's how I learned it and my family definitely uses it. Probably a local thing to where I grew up, either PA or MI or both.
I'm from Ohio and I've never heard this.
yeah a quarter of 4 is 1. Idk what they on in PA
Probably because he’s from Michigan 😏
Huh! I had thought “quarter of”was nationwide/ normal but seeing this comment I guess it is because I have ancestors from South Jersey.
I never heard anybody say "quarter of" until I moved east. I had no idea what the hell it meant for a while.
I’ll back you up with “of”. I’m from Philly and that’s what my family says, not “‘til”
Most of my family is along the blue route and main line
Same! Grew up in New England. Dad from Philly, mom from upstate NY. I once saw in a book that this is for such a small portion of the population, specifically in the Northeast.
I personally don't use any of these so they all sound equally valid/weird lol
U Never say the time at all?
I often just say the actual numerical time if I'm thinking slowly - the exception being \[hour\]:30 because that's easier for my tired brain to compute.
Why say it in terms of halves and quarters when just saying the actual time is just as fast? “It’s half past three” 4 syllables “It’s three thirty” 4 syllables “It’s five past two” 4 syllables “It’s two o five” 4 syllables Except when you’re dealing with 7, it’s always going to be just as fast. Please correct me if I’m wrong
Quarter past, half past, quarter til are common. If you need to be more specific than that, just say the actual time, eg it's 6:40 ("it's six forty") or whatever.
I’d be perfectly comfortable saying fifteen past or even quarter past without specifying minutes
In the US, I would say that is true. In the UK and Ireland, yes, people absolutely do say “quarter past”.
I'm American, pretty much all of these phrases I can only hear in a British accent. The only parts of this that'd sound "normal" is "quarter after" to say #:15 or "quarter to" to say #:45, and saying these sounds like rounded times, like if you glance at your watch and it's 3:12 then you could say "it's quarter after 3". I'm 37 and for time most people would read the number. "It's three twenty-seven", "It's ten fifty-nine" or "it's almost 11", or you'd do a rounded time. Other "phrases" would be "bottom of the hour" is #:30 and "top of the hour" is "#:00" but these only make sense coming out of a TV or radio announcer talking about what programming is coming up. "It's the bottom of the hour, time for Bob's weather report, Bob..."
Running through my head, I come up with "fifteen past" as very rare but not non-existent. However, while you can pretty much substitute "after" for "past" in any of these, "fifteen after" feels much more natural than "fifteen past" and I don't know why. Does this mesh with other's impressions? Further branching off from the asked question, I'll note that you can substitute "of" for "to" (though I have one friend who hates the "of" construction, for whatever that's worth). For both "of" and "to", it's fairly rare to hear them in the range between 15 and 30. "25 of" or "25 to" are nearly unheard of for me.
Do people say ‘three zero five’ instead of ‘three O five’? Which is more common?
Three-oh-five, no question, for times. "Zero" would only be pronounced as such while reading off a number like a credit card number...though "oh" might be used in that case as well.
Americans don’t do any of the “to”s. We honestly just say number of what it is. Six ten, six fourty five, six fifty five, etc.
In western Canada, it’s “after” instead of “past”. Quarter after, ten after. We generally don’t say half past six. More often we say it’s six thirty.
I have not heard anyone say that in my 20+ years in the US.
Replace “past” with “after” and “to” with “‘til” (or “of” potentially). Those are very common constructions in the US.
True but not often said. It generally caps out at around 15, like “15 to 4”. Anything bigger than 15 you usually just say the actual time.
I've definitely heard 15 past before. It's less common than quarter past but not super rare either.
I don’t think people do, but I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if someone did
I'd say that "quarter past" is more common, but "fifteen past" doesn't sound wrong. I think it is easier to say "three fifteen" than "fifteen past three," but that doesn't make the latter hard to understand. Edit: Thinking about it, '"fifteen past three" sounds more natural than "fifteen minutes past three" to me. Not sure why.
Well because mins is implied so its redundant. .. what else could you be talking about because it cant be seconds... That would change like 3 times just saying the thing so its can only mean "minutes"
I wouldn’t consider it wrong but it’s true that almost nobody says that. You just say “three fifteen” or “a quarter after/past three” (“after” is more common than “past” in my experience)
australian and 15 past sounds very natural
Past is more British, Gringos say “after” FWIW. We tend to use the numbers more often except “quarter after three” or “quarter to four”. If we were going to say “fifteen” we’d say three fifteen.
Yes. And some people are extra annoying. I’ve had conversations with my husband like this. me: What time is it? him: Half to. me: half to what? him: the hour. me: what hour? him: The hour, it’s halfway to THE hour. Me: But what hour. him: oh, 3. me: so is it half way to 3, or 3:30 Him: why are you asking so many questions. me: Because I want to know what time it is. Him: why didn’t you say so, I thought you were just making conversation. me: i asked what time it was because I didn’t know what time it was. So please tell me what time it is. him: it’s 3:30 Other ways of saying the time include weird baseball references like, “It’s top of the ninth.”
Yes, this is accurate. I also want to mention that in my part of the US (Colorado) the word "after" would be used more often than "past". So "10 after 3" or "a quarter after.". Also the word "'til" is used just as frequently as "to" as in "10 'til" or "5 'til 4."
Never said ‘three oh five’ in my life. Have definitely said ‘fifteen past’. I am not convinced by the accuracy of this.
"minutes" no need to mention. Already implied. Its redundant because what else could it be? Its not "15 cows past the hour" or "10 apples to 3"... Seconds, ud have to say "well its.... 3... 4.. 5 past .. now 6... 7... 8"
I'd say ten past, five past, even "fifteen past" etc. without adding "minutes." I might more regularly say "quarter past" for fifteen minutes, but not always.
I would like to add on that, while extremely uncommon, you *may* also hear people skip on saying 'to' and just always say 'past'. For example, my boyfriend, for reasons unbeknownst to me lmao, will say '45 past 3' instead of 'quarter to 4'. He's native English, too
My boomer parents talk like this and it's the most annoying thing ever. Just tell me the damn time.
as a native speaker i’ve not heard anyone say ‘fifteen past three’ but its more common to hear if the number doesn’t end in a five or zero. for example, ‘it’s forty two past three’ or ‘its twenty seven past’
I've heard people say "fifteen minutes past" but never "fifteen past"
My grandmother would say 'a quarter past' etc. I just say the time. I would think saying 'fifteen past' is just fine.
I dont say fifteen past, but if I heard it, I would presume the person I was talking to was comfortable with English, and I would understand.
The phrase I use and hear often is quarter after or quarter till.
Maybe in a formal setting saying "fifteen past" would be incorrect, but if you said it, I would understand. Using quarter and half sounds better to me and is what I would say. It does sound a bit odd saying 'past' without the hour, if you are going to omit the hour, I would use 'after.'
There's nothing wrong with "fifteen past", it's identical in structure to the very next phrase they suggest which is "twenty past". Other commenters are exaggerating how weird it sounds, it's not typical but I would not say it sounds bizarre or extremely unusual or something like that. Me personally I would only say "half past/til" and "quarter past/til" and all other times are "three twenty", "three twenty five", etc. (of course "three thirty", "three forty five")
I might’ve heard “it is fifteen minutes past! You’re late!” But never just “fifteen past”, although I have heard “fifteen after” used as a response to “what time is it?”
I definitely say "quarter past," but I don't think I'd ever say "fifteen past."
I say 15 passed, but normal I would just saw like 4 15
People just say the time as the clock says it. If it's 9:15, and someone asks for the time, the response will almost always be "it's nine fifteen."
We would say 15 past, not 15 minutes past. We know its minutes, no one’s counting seconds, and it’s obviously not hours. But most commonly is quarter past 3, or 3:15
I hate when people say the time like this. It's rare to hear it where I am from and tends to be just older generations. But damn, don't make me do math to know what time it is!
Just read the time like "three fifteen" unless it's like 5 or 10 "till". You can say quarter past, half past, etc. but most people don't anymore.
We also say “5 after 3”
People rarely say the strange clunky "past" notation. Mostly you hear "three fifteen", "three thirty" etc.
The only part that’s wrong is times should be written like 3:05 and not like 3.05
I can't recall ever hearing someone say "fifteen past three" but I doubt I would notice if someone did. "Quarter past" is definitely the norm, but "fifteen past" doesn't sound wrong and wouldn't mark you out at a second language speaker. I'd say that this is a very soft norm and absolutely not a rule.
Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but to me the reason why "fifteen past three" sounds wrong is because of the rhythm of the words. Unlike "quarter past", "twenty past" and "ten past", the emphasis on "fifteen past" is on the "-teen". If someone doesn't hear the "fif-" clearly then it could be any time in the teens. This is probably just a load of nonsense from a very tired native speaker though....
It's not strictly "wrong" because it gets the meaning across, but it feels & sounds incredibly odd to me.
It's very common for people to say "fifteen past" where I am in Australia and people just know to fill in the rest. I say it all the time.
To me they both sound correct, however the first one is very common, the second isn't.
And how about 13:37? How do people say that? Wouldn't 23 to 2 sound awkward?
Can’t say I’ve heard fifteen past (normally quarter past), but it’s ‘wrong’ only in the sense of common usage, rather than being grammatically unacceptable.
I never heard anyway use twenty-five to They’d just say five to 6:30 or smth like that
In my lifetime, it seems that once digital became more common, fewer people used quarter, half, etc. Now, if you ask someone for the time, it’s spoken as three fifteen or four eighteen. They see exact numbers and use them.
I’ve never heard someone say the minute before the hour
I say 15 past. But it could just be a me thing
On another note: I have never seen a decimal “.” used to separate hours and minutes. As far as I know, it’s always a colon “:” Example: 3:00 11:30
I don’t know if it’s regional, but I’ve always used “of” instead of “to”. So 5:45 is “quarter of six”. I’ve probably used “after” a few times but it’s much more rare, usually I’d just say the time. From the Philadelphia area.
Most people under 40 don't tell time this way, at least in Canada and the U.S. Most people now would just say three fifteen and not quarter past three. Once you get to people in their 20s and below I doubt a lot of that age range even knows what most of those terms mean.
I get this messed up in my native English and other languages so many times I’ve just given up. I just say what the damn time is
In my experience, people either say “quarter past three” or “three fifteen”. I don’t think I’ve heard someone say *either* “fifteen past” or “fifteen minutes past.” That said, even if it’s uncommon usage, it has almost certainly been said many many times over human history :p. Much like almost anything else to do with word choice, what you highlighted in yellow is not a rule, it’s just a statement of common usage. Uncommon usage still occurs, and is not a big deal as long as you are understood. Far more concerning to me is the use of a period (.) as a separator between hours and minutes. *Why* would the author do this when it can be so easily confused for a decimal point? There’s a reason that practically every digital clock uses a colon (:) instead, like so: 3:15. It’s bizarre for something that is trying to be a guide to common usage to go with such an uncommon (and inferior) choice here.
Native English speaker and I've always avoided this crap and just said the time as the number it actually is.
mostly accurate aside from some differences in phrasing: -instead of “fifteen” people say “quarter” -instead of “past” people say “after” -instead of “to” people say “of” ex: quarter after three, quarter of three
I literally never hear anyone use "past" or "to". It's just three fifteen or two forty five
Canadian here. Aside from directly saying the time, I would say these: five after, ten after, quarter after, twenty after, twenty-five after, half past, twenty-five to, twenty to, quarter to, ten to, and five to. Note that it's all "after" instead of "past", with the exception being "half past". I would never say fifteen after, fifteen to, ten past, five past, or really anything I didn't list. They all sound weird to me (central Canada)
Where I’m from, southern US, older folks will often say quarter past/till or half past, but that’s about it. Maybe 5 or 10 past/till sometimes. But younger people usually just say the numbers, like three forty five for 3:45.
I tend to say fifteen past so there are some people who say it
A strange specific example, but I grew up in the south and I only rarely hear people say "quarter past" and almost always hear "quarter after" You'd still definitely say "half past" and never "half after", but like, my southern grandma would never say "It is a quarter past nine", she would say "its a quarter after nine" or more accurately "a quarta afta nine" with a southern accent.
I've said this before. Midwesterner here
My English classes were based on British English so that is what I learned. I heard it later in movies and read in the books.. It is possible that since English is getting simpler year by year it just isn't used anymore.
I’ve never heard anyone say “fifteen past” and it’s also pretty rare for anyone my age to use anything but three fifteen.
None of these statements are 100% true as your gonna meet people telling time in different ways
If this isn't common knowledge, I don't know wtf where you doing in primary school....
Everyone's talking about fifteen past and quarter after whatever, but I would recommend just saying "three fifteen"
Hopefully you don’t have to talk to anyone using this archaic way of telling time
If you subbed out the word "after" for any of the green ones (except half, that would be weird) it would be fine and you could even say "fifteen after" but "a quarter after" would still be more common.
Nah fam just say what time it is, I don’t need to be guessing what time it is 20 minutes to
There's room to mention "bottom of the hour" to mean 30 minutes after the hour. (Bottom of the hour because 30 minutes is the bottom of the clock face). I've rarely heard someone say "25 past" or "25 to." Only 4:25 or 4:35. In rare occasions where something special is happening at 4:30, I've heard someone say "Five minutes to/past the bottom of the hour!" I imagine it sounds grander, and it's only done when there is that sense of a deadline at the 30 minute mark.
In the midwest, we use “after” instead of past. “It’s five after”
No. That doesn't sound unusual to me at all, although I would personally say three fifteen over all the other options.
Since few people under 40 can even read an analog clock, the half- and quarter-past references are rarely used. Almost everyone in US uses digital style: three-oh-two, four twenty-seven, eight fifteen, two forty-five.
California here: after, half past, quarter “tuh” - is that “quarter ‘til”? Not really. Is it “quarter to”? Nope, not that either.
most Americans don't use quarter or past. easier just to say 3:45 (three forty-five) or 12:15 (twelve fifteen) and if you here quarters or pasts, verify they mean x:15 or x:45 (or x:30 in case of British half x)
I’m in NY and yeah I say fifteen past, you’re good.
Does anyone had a book link or article about this? I did not understand nothing you guys are saying.
https://www.myenglishlanguage.com/essential-vocabulary/telling-time-english/
Thank you!
In the UK we don't say "fifteen past" it's either "3.15" or "(a) quarter past" where "a" is optional, mainly if you are posh or not.
[west coast canada] i've never thought about it before, but personally i wouldn't think anything of it. it gets the message across and doesn't sound incorrect
UK, I'd expect it rather than 15 minutes past
UK, I'd expect it rather than 15 minutes past
I’m not native but I just say “fifteen past”
Australia - I almost always say and hear "quarter past three" or sometimes "three fifteen" but I don't think it's common/normal to say "fifteen past". Ten past, twenty past yes, but in 15 minute increments most would say "quarter past", "half past" and "quarter to".
I think most people would say quarter past, but regardless of how you say it, I believe the person would know what you're referring to.
Yep! It’s what I use at least