My 18 year old daughter is the same (and also can't read an analog clock). Despite me using "quarter to," "quarter past," and "half past" regularly throughout her life. And we having analog clocks in most communal spaces in our house. And we drilled her on analog clocks for two summers in a row...
replySimilarly, when I moved from the UK to Canada, people often didn't understand what I meant when I said it was "half ten", which is the common way of saying ten thirty, at least where I grew up.
replyI’m a “quarter past” person but I’ve always been confused by “half ten” (which thankfully isn’t used in Australia). But in German, “half ten” means 9:30, which is make more sense to me (probably because I’m used to how German speech often drops words, which is less common in English)
replyFor "half ten" we're just dropping a word from "half past ten".
replyHow does one get to "half ten" in German? Is it simply starting from "half to ten"?
Next, go to Germany or the Netherlands where half ten means 9:30.
replyI never heard that when I lived in the UK in the 70s, but only in Ireland in the late 90s.
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