this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025
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Time is weird. Even in the same language some people will tell time differently.
In French my parents are used to fractions while I don't. So for me 9:45 is nine hours fourty five but for them it's ten hours minus the quarter.
You can go both ways in Spanish, but "hour minus X" is definitely less popular with younger people. Does any time in the latter half work with that approach in French? For example, in Spanish you can call 9:39 "10 minus 21"
It works and would be understood but it would also be odd. The unwritten rule is to round up to a multiple of 5.
Wait, what?
Yep. French Canadian is the same:
9:45 - 10 hours less a quarter
Dix heures moin la quart
8:15 - 8 hours and quarter
Huit heures et quart
How was this allowed to happen
Police cant stop us.
Im cracking up at the police coming because it is illegal to tell the time this way.
Ouvert, c'est la police de la langue!
Have you ever tried to tell the French what to do? :)
Note, it's partly why I respect my fellow French Canadians
In west Germany, it would be viertel vor zehn (quarter before ten) while in the East, it would be dreiviertel zehn (three-quarter ten).
Yay for West Germany
I think it's similar to saying "quarter to ten", and I suspect it's a result of how numbers/counting work in French.
Yeah, as in, if you take a quarter of an hour (15 minutes) from 10, it's 9:45.
They also use minus ten, minus twenty or even minus twenty-five.
Ten hours minus twenty-five is 9:35.
Ten hours minus twenty is 9:40.
Ten hours minus (a/the) quarter is 9:45.
Ten hours minus ten is 9:50.
I find it confusing and never got used to this system. It feels old fashioned and it's not even faster to say. But it's still pretty common while being informal.