Alternate Way of 'Half Past the Hour
Cheryl
Kwiziq community member
3/09/16
Bonjour Michael,
I recently saw this lesson on kwizik. Yes, apparently, you can use either expression for the half hour, but it's more 'elegant' to use only 'trente' after mid-day! Up until mid-day, it's ok to use either expression.
Cheryl
Michael
Kwiziq community member
4/09/16
Hello Cheryl.
Thank you very much for taking a moment to answer my question. As well, thank you for the extra bit about when to use them... I had no idea!!
Bonne journée.
Michael
Cheryl
Kwiziq community member
5/09/16
De rien!
I remember the rule about using trente & also quinze instead of et demi & et quart after mid-day, by thinking about the film The Gremlins: "don't feed them or get them wet after midnight!".
..et demi & et quart are the Gremlins: don't use them after mid-day.
Cheryl
Aurélie
Kwiziq language super star
5/09/16
Just a little precision to Cheryl's very informative comments ;)
When you use "trente" or "quinze", you don't need the "et" :
Il est quinze heures trente. / Il est trois heures et demie.
Il est treize heures quinze. / Il est une heure et quart.
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Michael
Kwiziq community member
3 September 2016
4 replies
Alternate Way of 'Half Past the Hour
Is it acceptable to alternatively say 'il est cinq heures et trente' as well as '...et demie/demi'? I ask because I noticed the structure for expressing time is identical to Italian, where one can use '...e trenta' as well as '...e mezzo' for expressing half past the hour.
This relates to:
Telling the time in French - simple -