6

I don't know if this is a good question. But as far as I know, and as I do it, American English also say "after" other than "past" in expressing times.

For example, a quarter after six instead of, a quarter past six as in British English.

The other difference I know, so far, is that the British use dots to separate "hour" and "minute" in digital times like "08.35" while Americans use a colon e.g; "08:35".

So is what I know, so far, correct? Or are there any other differences that I don't know about?

rogermue
  • 13,878
Safira
  • 1,936
  • 1
    As an American I use both past, for quarter past noon, and the DOT in my times. Its 20.43 right now central time... Or a quarter til 21.00 – AthomSfere Sep 16 '13 at 01:44
  • You mean you use "after" and "past"? So do Americans only use dot in times? Do you use colon as well? How about British? – Safira Sep 16 '13 at 01:50
  • 3
    It is unconventional in America to use a 'dot' between the hour and minutes of a time. Americans typically use a colon. I, in fact, don't know of anyone in America other than @AthomSfere that uses a dot. – Jim Sep 16 '13 at 01:59
  • Oh? LOL I was wrong, sorry I am not from speaking-English country. So does British English uses colon instead of dot? Perhaps I got the dot and colon switched, – Safira Sep 16 '13 at 02:02
  • 1
    No, No, what I'm saying is that you are correct most people in America use a colon. In my experience only AthomSfere uses a 'dot' in America. So if you are generalizing, you should assume: "In America they use a colon" – Jim Sep 16 '13 at 02:17
  • In the northeastern US some people say things like "quarter of six" to mean 5:45. – asveikau Sep 16 '13 at 02:58
  • @Jim, it is not common. I spend a fair amount of time with foreigners and the DOT convention seems more natural to me, especially in electronic form, where the . is a habit from code / scripts / files and what not, but : is almost never used... even :: is more common if I ever use : at all. – AthomSfere Sep 16 '13 at 03:46
  • Related: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/105703/is-it-correct-to-say-it-is-forty-five-past-nine – Andrew Leach Sep 16 '13 at 06:57
  • 2
    I live in the UK and the usual separator is the colon - although the central dot, the space ( 12 45) and the non-space (1245) are also used. The dot is too confusable with the decimal separator - it's bad enough having to explain that say 'eleven hundred hours' is a misnomer. 9:35 and 10:25 would be 'twenty-five to / past ten', but 9:36 and 10:24 would be twenty-four minutes to / past ten'. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 16 '13 at 12:56
  • So from reading your comments.. Can I conclude that the assumption of using dot and colon is relative to each individual habit? But generally, it's like that: UK uses dot and USA uses colon? – Safira Sep 18 '13 at 07:55
  • And the use of the dot disagrees with the ISO 8601. – jinawee Jun 28 '14 at 07:18
  • These days when digital clocks are so common, some of the old ways of talking are going out. Instead just say "six fifteen" because that is what the digits on the clock say. – GEdgar Jun 25 '15 at 17:08

4 Answers4

5

American English most common speech usage examples using 6 o'clock:

  • 6:00 we would normally just say "Six". If we really want to point out the exact time we might say "Six on the dot".

  • 6:01-6:29 normally uses after. Past is fine here too but not used as much. Also if you knew the hour, then you would probably just say the time. Example - "It is 6:25" or if you know it is 6-something you say "25 after". The one anomaly is if you use "quarter" and "quarter past" is just as common or more as "quarter after".

  • 6:30 we say, "half past". Past is used almost exclusively. If you said "half after" it sounds a little weird but still OK. Example - "It is 6:30" or if you know it is 6-something you say "half past".

  • 6:31-6:59 would normally use till. After and past could be used and understood. They just normally aren't - "40 minutes after" isn't used much. Example - "It is 6:40" or if you know it is heading towards 7 then you would say "20 till".

Again you could say "20 till 7" or "quarter after 3" or whatever but if we are saying the whole time we just normally say it. So "10 minutes till 11" is usually just said "ten fifty".

As stated by some comments the word "to" is also said instead of "till". It may even be more commonly written. Using "to" would be very acceptable in speech but I feel the word "till" is more common in America.

RyeɃreḁd
  • 16,833
  • 1
    I know you don't like citing sources, but could you at least tell us where you live? What your dialect is? Also, would you say half six for half past six? Just wondering, I've only heard that in Britain. – terdon Sep 16 '13 at 03:57
  • This is an informative answer but (for me in any case) starting with numbers after each bullet point forces me to stop and reformulate the sentence in my head. I just feel the presentation lacks something, or could be improved for clarity's sake. – Mari-Lou A Sep 16 '13 at 04:30
  • @terdon - I grew up in the midwest, lived in California, Texas, and Florida. I am not back in the midwest and spend a lot of time in NY working. I really can't think of any regional differences. Also never heard half six. I would think 3 - seriously. I do spend a few weeks a year in London. Not sure if I have heard it or not. – RyeɃreḁd Sep 16 '13 at 04:56
  • 1
    @Mari-LouA - cleaned it up a little. Better? – RyeɃreḁd Sep 16 '13 at 04:59
  • 2
    I think she meant that it would be nice to write out an entire example, like twenty five after 6. Do you really say after? Wouldn't you just say six twenty five? Same goes for till, I'd say _twenty to seven rather than 20 till seven. Not sure I've even heard till. – terdon Sep 16 '13 at 05:08
  • 1
    @terdon "till" exits and is frequently used in the UK. (I must dash, off to work) EDIT: Ahh, but for saying the time, I'm not so sure – Mari-Lou A Sep 16 '13 at 05:13
  • @Mari-LouA I know the word exists, it is this usage that I have never heard before. – terdon Sep 16 '13 at 05:16
  • 1
    I never use "till" to name the time. I use "of" or "to" in its place. 20 of, 20 of 7, 20 to 7, quarter of, quarter to 8, quarter of 8 are all good. @Terdon, never heard someone say "half six", it is always "half past six" or just "half past". And I have heard both "six twenty-five" and "twenty-five after six" used equally. Brevity is not always the goal. – jmucchiello Sep 16 '13 at 05:18
  • I remember my grandparents said "to" and "of". I haven't heard that in years. Maybe it is still used in some parts of the US, especially with an older crowd - again haven't heard them used in a long time but have heard them. – RyeɃreḁd Sep 16 '13 at 06:10
  • 2
    @terdon - till is just a phonetically abbreviated until. It is pretty common because it can be used as a pseudo countdown. "Hey guys it is 20 till." "Hey we are leaving soon, it is 10 till." "5 till guys, remember we leave at 8 on the dot." – RyeɃreḁd Sep 16 '13 at 06:17
  • :) Thanks, as I said, I am perfectly well aware of the word, I had just never heard it used as you describe till now. – terdon Sep 16 '13 at 13:13
  • Although I seem to get the answer only from American side, but thank you. :) – Safira Sep 18 '13 at 07:57
  • -1: I simply don't believe "We'll leave [at 20 till* 8](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22at+20+till+8%22&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1)"* has any meaningful level of currency. That link is to the one and only written instance in Google Books, as compared to 897 instances of "...at 20 to 8" – FumbleFingers Sep 18 '13 at 20:50
  • @FumbleFingers - First you know most of your 897 results aren't for time right? Second if you get rid of the "at" numbers change. Third I know that "to" is also used - especially when I am in the UK. Not doubting that at all. Just stating what I hear in the US. – RyeɃreḁd Sep 18 '13 at 21:00
  • 1
    Actually, there are only 19 results when I check them, and even within those, there are a few where I can't see the actual matching text. But it seems to me about half are time references. The point is, I get the same general impression whatever text I search for (ten to nine tomorrow, for example) - in all cases, the "till" versions are vanishingly rare. Obviously you use it, but it doesn't seem to be particularly widespread. It's certainly not "the most common" American usage. – FumbleFingers Sep 18 '13 at 21:17
  • @FumbleFingers - you mean it isn't the most common written usage. Maybe so. – RyeɃreḁd Sep 18 '13 at 21:19
  • Well, I realise GB will be relatively light on spoken as opposed to written usage - but even if that caused a 50% reduction in apparent prevalence, it wouldn't affect my position. I also realise it's not really my place to shout the odds over what an American says about American usage, and I see you've edited to take account of my comments, so I think I'd best leave it to your fellow countrymen to pursue the issue if they think your "normally" overstates the case. – FumbleFingers Sep 18 '13 at 21:36
  • 2
    I'm an American speaker and I don't recall ever hearing anyone say "40 minutes after" in the US. Also I have to agree with FumbleFingers. In my experience "We'll leave at twenty to eight" is much more frequent in the US than "twenty till eight". I would call "twenty till eight" quite rare. But there certainly are differences in dialect around the US and I suppose RyeBread grew up in a place where they say "till". I've just never been there :o) – adj7388 Nov 25 '13 at 22:42
  • Except for 4:20. 4:20 is never twenty past four it's always four twentyyyyyy – bpromas Jun 25 '15 at 15:14
  • By far the most common way of saying it in speech in American English is [ɾə], which is also the most common pronunciation of unstressed to, but not a pronunciation of till that I have ever heard. Like @adj7388, I don’t recall ever hearing many Americans use till. More than 99 per cent of the Americans I have spoken to have used to exclusively, with a few of thrown in here and there. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 25 '15 at 18:10
3

For writing down the time I would use generally a colon. I am English and I don't think I know anyone who would write the time down with just a dot—that's new to me.

When saying the time i'd say for example "6" "quarter past 6" "10 past 6" "half 2" "20 to 5" "quarter to 9."

Brian Donovan
  • 16,289
Charlie Smith
  • 31
  • 1
2

I've found Americans more often use "after", for example 15 after 6, while British use more often use "Past", for example 15 past 6.

flavor
  • 29
  • 7
    No, British people do not normally say things like "15 past 6". If that happens at all, it will be very rare. In the UK, your example would be pronounced as a quarter past six or, six fifteen. – Tristan r Apr 28 '14 at 12:03
  • 1
    And Americans would say A quarter after six or six fifteen, but not usually fifteen after six. – Peter Shor Aug 16 '18 at 12:44
2

I can only speak for American English, and my observations are strictly based on personal experience. So:

Telling time is undergoing a major change, due to the widespread use of digital clocks.

When looking at an analog clock (with a dial face, hour and minute hands), the use of "past" and "til" come naturally. Furthermore, the use of approximate time, usually to the nearest 5 minutes, is also convenient. So, for instance, an indicated time of 6:43 would probably be reported as "quarter to six" or "quarter til six". To some degree, these usages are maintained, especially in the older segment of the population. For many, though, it is simply easier and faster to read the time directly from the digital display, "Six forty three".

WhatRoughBeast
  • 8,573