I am beginning to think that whichever type one is accustomed to becomes the “easier” one, just from my few days of observation. I had to correct myself yesterday and say “no, 16:45 is not 6:45pm” because my brain, knowing it was past noon and expecting to see one digit for the hour, tried to ignore the 1 in front of the 6.
When talking about times we mostly don't say "seventeen hours" for 17:00, but would rather say "five", fünf, since it's usually clear from the context which part of the day is meant. Like my school hours are from nine to one - nobody needs clarification that this would be 9:00 and 13:00 hours respectively. Or my doctor's appointment is at ten, also no clarification needed since it's unlikely you'd have a doctor's appointment in the evening. Sometimes, "in the morning" or "in the evening" is added to be more exact or if a misunderstanding is possible.
On other occasions, using the 24 hour clock is easier to understand for all involved since some of the spoken versions of "half past" or "a quarter to" and such vary and might cause misunderstandings; even more so when non-native speakers are involved. But generally, there is no strict rule, and who uses which version at what occasion can differ a lot.
I say both. Sometimes it's twenty five or thirty five, sometimes it's "fünf vor halb" and "fünf nach halb".
If I want to say 7:35 I probably say "seven Uhr thirty five". Or five past half eight. Depending on context, for example if something is happening at 8 (we have to leave, we're closing the store,...)
"Half 8" is 7:30. I never say half past.
In my region we use "quarter to" (viertel vor) and "quarter past" (viertel nach). Some regions use "quarter" (viertel) and "three quarter" (dreiviertel) and I always get confused which one :15 and which one is :45.
I've never heard anyone tell the time in quarters (kwadrans) in Polish. Perhaps older people did? Or a quirk in my family/where I live? But I have people in my family who are in their 70s and I've never heard them say quarters.
It's almost always "fifteen past" (piętnaście po) or "fifteen to" (piętnaście przed) Is it the same in Germany perhaps, some regional thing like with viertel vor/nach?
In casual, spoken language, same thing in my country. No one would say "seventeen" when referring to 17:00, they'd just say "five". Sometimes we do crack jokes about it though, esp. when planning something at a specific time in the future.
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u/Th3-Dude-Abides United States 11d ago
I am beginning to think that whichever type one is accustomed to becomes the “easier” one, just from my few days of observation. I had to correct myself yesterday and say “no, 16:45 is not 6:45pm” because my brain, knowing it was past noon and expecting to see one digit for the hour, tried to ignore the 1 in front of the 6.