"It's half past 6" vs "It's half after 6"

Question

HiWould you say that the both sentences are equally natural?It's half past six.It's half after six.Thanks,TomPs: Can we write 6 in the given sentences?

Penelope65 · Accepted Answer

Hi,

It's half past six

is the only right one and you can't write six in number.

You can write it's 6:30 pm I guess.

Mr. Tom · Answer

Dear Penelope

Thanks for your response, but I request you (no hard feelings please) to wait for a native speaker to give the answer if you are not completely sure of the question. I heard "half after six" from a native speaker yesterday.

Thanks,

Tom

Yankee · Answer

Hi Tom

The first one is a common usage, and the second one is not -- not in AmE, anyway.

It wouldn't surprise me too much if I heard someone say "It's 30 minutes after six", but "half after six" sounds very odd to my American ear.

However, I have heard British friends say things such as "It's half six" (i.e. 6:30). But I've personally never heard one of them add the word "after" to that expression. Actually, if they had added the word "after", that might have been helpful to me because I was always confused about what time they meant whenever they said "half six." lol

Penelope65 · Answer

Dear Tom,

I'm afraid you cannot request anything...I live in a free world and my opinion can be as valid or wrong as a native speaker's and I feel free to express it.

Of course I will not answer you back ever......

No hard feelings.

Anonymous · Answer

British 'half-six' does not mean 6.30, it means 5.30.  This is consistent with the same usage in german and the scandinavian languages.

Yankee · Answer

Hi Anon

Sorry, but you're wrong about that. If a Brit tells you that it's half six, they're telling you that it's 6:30. If a German tells you it's halb sechs, they are saying that it's 5:30. Even though the literal translation of "halb sechs" is "half six", the two phrases definitely do not mean the same thing.

If you'd spent years living in Germany with both British and German neighbors (as I did), you'd be very aware of this fact. When I was living in Germany, this difference in meaning was a never-ending source of confusion for my British neighbors and their German acquaintances when they made appointments with each other. People frequently arrived either an hour early or an hour late for appointments because of this difference in meaning. These mix-ups were caused by the fact that one nationality had grown up with half being after the hour, and the other nationality had grown up with halb being before the hour.

When I first arrived in Germany, all of this half six vs. halb sechs stuff was doubly confusing for me since we don't use phrases such as "half six" at all in American English.

Anonymous · Answer

I am a native British speaker of English and you would say:

It is half past six.

Or

It is half six.

Anonymous · Answer

"Half after six o'clock" or better- "half after six o'clock in the evening" is an old-fashioned form of soctal usage for formal invitations. In fact I just this afternoon picked up from an engraver social invitations that read "at half after seven o"clock in the evening". Very proper.

But setting aside the etiquette of formal social invitations as fairly non-germane to the question, I personally use "half past six" and "half after six" interchangeably In ordinary conversation, and hear others speak equally
interchangeably.

I might imagine the usage in both instances is descended in some way from the "half six" usage in Great Britain.

Teo · Answer

https://www.EnglishForward.com/English/HalfPastElevenAmericanEnglish/cdmrl/post.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/163344-It-is-half-after-past-3

Sitifan · Answer

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/237535-quot-half-after-six-quot-Need-American-English-speakers-help!

"It's half past 6" vs "It's half after 6"

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