'Half nine' in London - 8:30 and/or 9:30?

Bay Zol   Sat Sep 12, 2009 5:17 am GMT
Hello there,

Could you help me out here?

Somebody please tell me I am right in believing (and remembering) that speakers of British English, especially in the Greater London area do mean 8:30 by 'half nine' and not 9:30 as in 'half PAST nine".

As a learner and teacher of English I have always believed in 'standard English' but when I missed a meeting on account of my 'standard' (9:30) interpretation of 'half nine' I learnt a lesson, which lesson is now being unanimously challenged by my native speaker colleagues, who claim they have never heard of any such thing, and 'half nine' in any right frame of English, Australian, Irish etc. mind would only mean 'half past nine' that is 9:30.

I will be expecting your comments on it with the high hopes of being able to prove that all this is not the product of a non-native speaker's 'bad grammar' but an existing regional phenomenon.

Thank you
Answer   Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:26 am GMT
No, half nine = 9.30

In English it's always half past (including London)
Damian London SW15   Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:13 am GMT
Fine, that's ok by me - see you down the gym at half nine then, mate.....

.....it's just a fairly commonly used lazy way of saying half past nine....nine thirty, or 0-nine thirty hours, or twenty-one thirty hours for that matter.

I hear it being used from time to time not only down here in London, but back home in Scotland as well...it's not an exclusively Greater London thing, you know. What gave you that idea anyway?

When referring to the time Brits don't use the American way using the word "after" or "before"...here it's almost always "past" and "to" the hour.

Right now it's fifteen minutes past twelve, or twelve fifteen...and all's well.
Kaeops   Sat Sep 12, 2009 11:59 am GMT
Half nine (halb neun) is 8:30 in many German dialects.
What's German got to do w   Sat Sep 12, 2009 1:38 pm GMT
Yes, *durrrr* in German it's 8.30, but the OP was talking about ENGLISH
Guest   Sat Sep 12, 2009 2:03 pm GMT
Half nine (halb neun) is 8:30 in many German dialects.

Strange.In most of languages "half to" does not exist. Only "(30- x) to"
KT   Sat Sep 12, 2009 4:19 pm GMT
Americans will rarely say things like "half three", instead they are more likely to say "half past three" or "three thirty". It sounds very awkward to saying "thirty minutes after" sounds very awkward and I don't think anyone normally says it.

<<When referring to the time Brits don't use the American way using the word "after" or "before"...here it's almost always "past" and "to" the hour. >>

Since this is a language forum, I'd just like to clarify that "after" and "past" are both used equally as much in AE, but "before" is rarely if ever used.
"Ten minutes before eleven" sounds rather odd to American ears. You are more likely to hear "Ten minutes to eleven" or simply "ten of" which is short "Ten minutes of eleven"

"Past" and "to" the hour is very common in AE as well. It's extremely common to hear things in the US as "Half past three" or "ten to five"

To say that Americans don't say "past" and "to" the hour is like saying they don't use the work "autumn" (which they do)

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Uriel   Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:48 pm GMT
I'll second what KT says -- "past" and "to" are used by Americans, too.

It's about a quarter to two here, and if I said that, all of my friends would know what I was talking about. Now, I could say it was a quarter 'til two, and that would be normal, too. (I would personally be more likely to say that it was one forty-five, but there you go.) "Before" doesn't really get used much, unless you're saying it's fifteen minutes before twelve, which is a slightly different construction anyway.

"After" is probably used a little more often than "past" in the US for talking about quarter-hour increments. You always use "past" and never "after" if talking about half-hour increments, such as half past three, but honestly, that sounds a little old-fashioned to my ears -- three-thirty is far more common.
Kaeops   Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:00 pm GMT
To say that Americans don't say "past" and "to" the hour is like saying they don't use the work "autumn" (which they do)


//

Autumn is not used in general (that is, day2day) American English, it sounds a bit old-fashioned (quaint), and it's more used in poetic language.
FALL is shorter and simpler...