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 question relates to:
French lesson "Telling the time in French - simple"