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Henry74 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Past - to (telling time)
Hello,
Oftentimes when we tell the time in my language we omit the hour we are referring to, provided that the context is sufficient to dispel any ambiguity.
For example, if you are meeting a friend at 6:30 and you're running late, you could call him or her and say:
- I'm sorry. I'll be there at 45 past.*
And similarly with "to". Assuming your listener already knows that, say, your train was at 6:40, you could say:
- We were delayed. We left at 10 to.*
Does something similar happen in English?
*I have used the phrases "45 past" and "10 to" in an attempt to remain close to the original Italian, which literally would be said as "and 45" (instead of 6 and 45) and "minus 10" (instead of 6 minus 10).
I'm not sure, though, whether the words "past" and "to" are used in English when you spell out the numbers. That is, I don't know whether you can say "45 past 6" and "10 to 6", or whether those two words are confined to phrases with "half", "a quarter", etc.
Thank you for your help
H.
Oftentimes when we tell the time in my language we omit the hour we are referring to, provided that the context is sufficient to dispel any ambiguity.
For example, if you are meeting a friend at 6:30 and you're running late, you could call him or her and say:
- I'm sorry. I'll be there at 45 past.*
And similarly with "to". Assuming your listener already knows that, say, your train was at 6:40, you could say:
- We were delayed. We left at 10 to.*
Does something similar happen in English?
*I have used the phrases "45 past" and "10 to" in an attempt to remain close to the original Italian, which literally would be said as "and 45" (instead of 6 and 45) and "minus 10" (instead of 6 minus 10).
I'm not sure, though, whether the words "past" and "to" are used in English when you spell out the numbers. That is, I don't know whether you can say "45 past 6" and "10 to 6", or whether those two words are confined to phrases with "half", "a quarter", etc.
Thank you for your help
H.
Top answer
We'd say "quarter to" rather than "45 past" We use 'to'' and 'past' with five, ten, (a) quarter, , twenty, and twenty-five. We use only 'past' with half.
- We'd say "quarter to" rather than "45 past" We use 'to'' and 'past' with five, ten, (a) quarter, , twenty, and twenty-five.
- We use only 'past' with half.
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6 Answers
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We'd say "quarter to" rather than "45 past"
We use 'to'' and 'past' with five, ten, (a) quarter,, twenty, and twenty-five. We use only 'past' with half.
We use 'to'' and 'past' with five, ten, (a) quarter,, twenty, and twenty-five. We use only 'past' with half.
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I see. So there would be no way to omit mention of the hour with times such as 6:37 becasuse the omission only works with "past" or "to", but :37 is not on the list of times you say with those two. Correct?
H.
H.
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We use "to" and "past" just as described above, but since the coming of the digital age, I myself hardly ever use those terms anymore. With me it's all 6:30, 8:10, and 5:45 now.
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Yes. Our "past" and "to" counterparts are also no longer as common as they used to be. Only phrases with "a quarter" seem to have survived, for the rest, we also just read out the numbers.
But because we use that same number-reading format for our abbreviations, I get the feeling that the phenomenon of omitting the hour is more common in Italian than it is in English.
H.
But because we use that same number-reading format for our abbreviations, I get the feeling that the phenomenon of omitting the hour is more common in Italian than it is in English.
H.
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Henry74Oftentimes when we tell the time in my language we omit the hour we are referring to, provided that the context is sufficient to dispel any ambiguity. *Does something similar happen in English?To answer your original question: yes. I'm running late—I'll be there at about ten to.
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Unlike some of the others, I use the 'past' and 'to' forms often in speech, as do my colleagues, except for transport times. So, a brief dialogue might well be:
A: What time shall we meet?
B: Well, the train leaves at 07.49, so let's meet at the ticket office at twenty to.
If somebody asks me the time, my answer depends on the situation. If I am working at my co
A: What time shall we meet?
B: Well, the train leaves at 07.49, so let's meet at the ticket office at twenty to.
If somebody asks me the time, my answer depends on the situation. If I am working at my co
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