Are "half six" and "half past five" equally correct?

I insist that people speaking to me use the hour followed by the number of minutes. The Dutch tell time differently from the English, and it has led me to be late.

My favorite though, is the Dutch use of phrases ‘5 before half 9’ to represent 8:25. Seems overly complicated to me.

So to answer your question, they are equally correct, but to make yourself clear, just say hour and minutes.

uh, not in the way you think.

“Half six” is an acceptable abbreviation of “Half past six”, meaning 1830, NOT 1730 as it would in Dutch or German.

Depending on which side of the pond I’m on, I say “Five Thirty PM” or “Seventeen Thirty.” Makes it crystal clear what time you mean.

I can figure out what someone means by “half past,” but when people use things like “quarter of” I ain’t got a clue what the opposite of heaven they’re talkin’ ‘bout!

Depends on where you live. 6:30 is also good. Then there’s military time.

In the UK, 17:30 would be “half five” not “half six”. 18:30 is half six. I don’t think it’s grammatically correct though, I think it’s an informal abbreviation, and children in school are taught to say “half past…”

We also say “quarter to” and “quarter past” but for obvious reasons these aren’t abbreviated. Like @HungryGuy, I have no idea what “quarter of” means.

In the U.S., if someone said half six, which they wouldn’t, it would be taken to mean half past six or six thirty.

I love language related to times…

For 5.15, in the UK we say quarter past, but in the US it’s normal to say a quarter after…

For 5.45 we would say it’s quarter to six, but in French the translation would be six hours less a quarter…

Half six is certainly common in the UK for 6.30, but I would say it is interchangeable with half past six and neither would cause anyone to bat an eyelid. But as @downtide writes, it is taught in schools as half past six.

EDIT – we may also say six thirty… For 6.25 we would say it’s twenty five past six, and for 6.35 we would say twenty five to seven.

@marinelife – Right! In the US, people are always saying things like “half past” and “quarter to” or “quarter of,” instead of “Five twenty five” or “Nine fifty three.” Drives me absolutely batty what they mean!!!

Then again, someone on the bus or subway platform (in the US) will ask me what time it is, and I’ll open my phone and say, “It’s five twenty six.” And they’ll look at me like I’m from Mars or something…

Quarter after six or six fifteen, six thirty, six forty-five or a quarter to six. That’s how we say it where I am.

@harple For 5.45 we would say it’s quarter to six…
In the US an acceptable alternative is quarter of six_, though I usually use “to.”
Do you not use a colon rather than a period to separate hours from minutes?

@gasman I believe colons and periods are both fine – colons are probably more accurate, (@downtide used them above and he’s in the UK too).

The easiest and clearest way to tell time is by saying the hour followed by the minutes. Six thirty, seven forty five.

In an age of digital clocks, and children not being taught how to read a clock dial face, these expressions will fall along the way.

True dat. Digital clocks on the smartphones simply state the time in hours and minutes – and this is how they will learn to tell time. If the digital display says 05:57 – it isn’t anything of, past or to – it simply is five fifty seven.

@filmfann – And good for that, I say!

Yet analog displays haven’t disappeared altogether when they had the opportunity to. Clock dials still seem a popular consumer choice, from phone displays to wristwatches. Is it inevitable that the analog clock face will disappear within, say, a century? What will happen to AM and PM when there is no longer a “little hand” to track?

Well, one must first realize that Dutch and English are two different languages. In Dutch, “half zes” litterally means “half six” (half=half; zes=six), but the meaning is five thirty. Thus, I would not say that saying “half six” in English to mean “half past five” to be correct.

We tell time in Norwegian like the Dutch. fem over halv syv, is 6:35. when I was in New Zealand some of them said ‘half six’ and meant 6.30, never 5.30. they were simply shortening the half past six by dropping the ‘past’ . I grew up in the US, moved to NZ and lived there (and had to learn proper English) and now living in the crazy wonderland of Norway, and being forced to learn Norwegian.

I have never heard anyone say half six meaning 5:30 o’clock. I have heard half past five all of my life.

@gasman Actually, the am and pm do not exist here; we tell time by using the 24 hour clock. It’s 1930.