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In conversational English as spoken in the UK, half past eight (for 8:30) is often reduced to half eight (whereas in the United States half past eight would always be used). But in German halb acht, Dutch half acht, and Swedish halv åtta, all invariably mean 7:30.
For example, "half ten" means 10:30 (a.m. or p.m.). This is itself an abbreviation of an older colloquialism, "half past ten". The abbreviation can cause misunderstanding with non-native speakers as this contrasts with many European languages, where the same type of expression denotes 30 minutes before the hour. For example, Czech půl desáté ...
Times of day from :01 to :29 minutes past the hour are commonly pronounced with the words "after" or "past", for example, 10:17 being "seventeen after ten" or "seventeen past ten". :15 minutes is very commonly called "quarter after" or "quarter past" and :30 minutes universally "half past" the current hour, e.g., 4:30, "half past four".
For example, 5:15 can be phrased "(a) quarter past five" or "five-fifteen"; 5:30 can be "half past five", "five-thirty" or simply "half five". The time 8:45 may be spoken as "eight forty-five" or "(a) quarter to nine". [19] In older English, it was common for the number 25 to be expressed as "five-and-twenty". [20] In this way the time 8:35 may ...
5, 10, a quarter (never 15), 20, or 25 past 8; intervening minutes like 13 usually become "13 minutes past 8", but it might be just "13 past 8" half (never 30) past 8 (and never "half to 9") 25, 20, a quarter (never 15) , 10 or 5 to 9; intervening minutes are more likely to be "17 to 9" rather than "17 minutes to 9" (the reverse of the first ...
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Like Old English tīd and stund, ... Fifteen and thirty minutes past the hour is expressed as "a quarter past" or "after" [8] and "half past", respectively, from ...
Half two [1:30 am or pm] (note that this is different from the British expression "half two", the latter being short for "half past two", i.e. 2:30) Five (minutes) to half three [2:25 am or pm] Five (minutes) past half four [3:35 am or pm] As indicated, the word for "minutes" is usually left out. The "five to half" and "five past half" phrases ...