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I think in the following sentence, alle should be replaced with jede:

Diese Busse fahren alle fünfzehn Minuten vom Hauptbahnhof ab.

It means that the buses leave every fifteen minutes, doesn't it? Are both correct? Do they mean exactly the same?

Wrzlprmft
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2 Answers2

18

You use alle for "15 minutes" because "minutes" is plural. You would use jede for singulars, like jede halbe Stunde. You could not use them vice-versa.

Hackworth
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    Though I think "alle halbe Stunde" is used colloquially. – mosaic Sep 30 '11 at 20:19
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    IMHO there's almost no difference between "alle halbe Stunde" and "alle dreißig Minuten". And i doubt whether this is colloquial - i can't think of a situation where this phrase would be inappropriate (maybe simply because i can't think of an alternative ;) ). – tohuwawohu Oct 01 '11 at 13:19
  • "Alle halbe Stunde" sounds wrong to me, I would say "jede halbe Stunde" or "alle halben Stunden". – Phira Oct 03 '11 at 13:52
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    "alle halbe Stunde" does not sound wrong at all to this native German. But it is col. :-) – Florenz Kley Oct 08 '11 at 14:14
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I think it is something like a fixed term.

dwds says

alle bezeichnet den wiederkehrenden Wechsel; immer wieder nach  
alle halbe(n), alle (drei) Stunden

mitteldeutsch aller
aller fünf Minuten, zwei Jahre, drei Schritt