My internal clock runs on a circle... So if I am guessing or saying roughly the time I will use "quarter to", "ten past", etc. If it's an exact time I will say it to the minute, 6:43 etc.
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Never saw the point. It doesn't save syllables, and people unaccustomed to it get confused
I'm not sure. Anecdotal evidence, but when I was little, we learned how to read analog clocks, and all the "half past whatever" terminology. Actually, I think most of us in my class at that time primarily used analog clocks. Even then, we never used those sorts of phrases. We would just round to the nearest 5 minutes if anyone asked.
That's still what I do nowadays. Of course, there's phones and computers now that can tell you the time, but if I want a physical clock, I prefer to get an analog one. And I still just round to the nearest 5 minutes.
In my interpretation, those phrases fell out of favor a long time ago
I don't get why, it's not like they aren't learning fractions these days right?
Because it's easier to use 5:15 or 5:30 when you get a digital readout. No one's counting every individual tick on an analog clock, so fractions make more sense in that case.
I still hear people talk about the top and bottom of the hour all the time.
I've never heard those phrases in person, only when spoken on TV or radio. Whereabouts you from?
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I'm 46 and for as long as I can remember I've used "half past" and "quarter to" etc. Even during the years when I used a digital watch I transferred to do this now often than not. I'll use it with my Kuga as well and they understand and often do the same.
Since using AM and PM are essentially analogue standards, will people eventually stop saying "it's two o'clock" when they mean "the time is fourteen hundred"?
i dont know if you are joking or not, but i have all my clocks unironically on 24 hour time.
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Talking about hundreds is American military slang/jargon isn't it? I've never heard it elsewhere and it doesn't even make sense. It's fourteen hours, not hundreds. If we're going that way, I think it'll be "twenty past fourteen" and such.
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I think everybody puts too much emphasis on it being a strict generational thing while imo it's mostly a force of habit.
I'm on my early 20s, and used to take around 10 seconds to read an analog clock. Fully digital mind. Bought an analog wrist watch this summer and merely 1-2 months into wearing it I started understanding it instantaneously and all of "half past" type phrases click immediately now.
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It's becausee with digital clocks it's easier to just read the exact time which used to be less convenient. So. Reading digital clocks easy: Juat read what you see. Reading traditionap clocks easy: quarters and halves are a great way to simplify and fasten the time that it takes to tell what time it exactly is.