Telling time in U. K. English

[Freeshadow]

German might be the reason, I think - altough there are limits to that.
with Slavonic languages it's quite the same - altough (being Polish native) I'd rather understand bits of spoken than written Russian because I never managed to get cyryllic in my head.

[Bookworm_Girl]

What is the proper way to speak time in England that is like 13:00 or 13:05 for example? We would say thirteen hundred and thirteen-oh-five.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

What is the proper way to speak time in England that is like 13:00 or 13:05 for example? We would say thirteen hundred and thirteen-oh-five.

Yes, we'd say the same if we were using the 24h clock. In normal conversation, of course, we'd just say "one o'clock" and "five past one".

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

What is the proper way to speak time in England that is like 13:00 or 13:05 for example? We would say thirteen hundred and thirteen-oh-five.

If people are using the 24 hour clock (which wouldn't be usual in normal speech) I think it would be the same. Otherwise, that would be 1 'o' clock and 5 past 1.

[DMB]

The 24-hour clock is much more used in Continental Europe than in Britain.

In my francophone part of Switzerland we say "treize heures" and "treize heures cinq". We normally always use the 24h clock when making appointments, but in my experience that's quite rare in England.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, we'd say the same if we were using the 24h clock. In normal conversation, of course, we'd just say "one o'clock" and "five past one".

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

If people are using the 24 hour clock (which wouldn't be usual in normal speech) I think it would be the same. Otherwise, that would be 1 'o' clock and 5 past 1.

Hmm...jinx!

[HarryT]

LOL

[Bookworm_Girl]

Thanks! I was booking transportation and they always speak in the 24 hour clock at this service. She understood what I meant, but I wondered what the proper way was.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

What is the proper way to speak time in England that is like 13:00 or 13:05 for example? We would say thirteen hundred and thirteen-oh-five.

If it was necessary to emphasise that is was the early afternoon being referred to, one might say "one pm" or "one oh five pm".

But most people would understand "thirteen hundred" or "thirteen oh five".

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four starts "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen" which immediately tells the reader that something's wrong or different.

[carpetmojo]

Pretty much all digital stuff uses 24 hr now - or give an option.

I do like it, but still find myself mentally working out the "real" time counting on from 12 !
Even tho I know 13,14, and 15 at least, really ...

Duh.....

[vans]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Pretty much all digital stuff uses 24 hr now - or give an option.

I do like it, but still find myself mentally working out the "real" time counting on from 12 !
Even tho I know 13,14, and 15 at least, really ...

Duh.....

Even after all these years I still do the same for Centigrade. I mentally convert to Fahrenheit.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Impressive! Too much work to mentally convert. Since the temperature is pretty consistent, I've just memorized what the range of 12 to 17C equates to. Actually I'm sitting in an English pub typing this message on my mobile. I thought it might be a little geeky on a Friday night to break out the ereader. The reason I asked about 13:05 before is because I wondered if Brits said "oh" instead if zero. However I was listening to someone give a phone number earlier and noticed that he said "oh" instead of zero. I thought that was just a sloppy American thing.

[HarryT]

In telephone numbers, credit card numbers - anywhere that there's no ambiguity - the number zero will always be spoken as "oh" in British English.

[Bookworm_Girl]

That's very interesting (to me). Thanks, Harry. We do the same. Bizarrely the table of 4 next to me is talking about Kindles! Today I learned the expression umming and arring. Never heard that one. However they thought the equivalent American expression of hemming and hawing was equally strange. I was told that they always learn such weird things when I come to visit! Anyway, tomorrow I've got planned a lovely walk on the downs assuming the weather is as brilliant as it was today! I think we talked about that many pages ago on this thread.

[vans]

Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl

That's very interesting (to me). Thanks, Harry. We do the same. Bizarrely the table of 4 next to me is talking about Kindles! Today I learned the expression umming and arring. Never heard that one. However they thought the equivalent American expression of hemming and hawing was equally strange. I was told that they always learn such weird things when I come to visit! Anyway, tomorrow I've got planned a lovely walk on the downs assuming the weather is as brilliant as it was today! I think we talked about that many pages ago on this thread.

The Downs. I love walking on the Downs. The weather forecast for Southern England is cloudy but dry tomorrow. So hopefully you will keep dry. If I see someone with a Sony PRS-350, 950, NOOKcolor, K3 Wifi, and an iPhone 4, I will say hello :-)

Re "oh" and "zero", I have developed the bad habit of using both, in the same number string.