January 25, 20197 yr I just asked someone what time our meeting was and they said "ten of twelve." What does that mean?
January 25, 20197 yr I could be wrong, but I think what you are asking about is a colloquialism. A dialect would be how words are pronounced. For example, oil, boil, and soil. A northerner would pronounce them oy-el, boy-el, and soy-el, where a southerner would typically pronounce the same words all, ball, and sall. Like that.
January 25, 20197 yr I just asked someone what time our meeting was and they said "ten of twelve." What does that mean? Like @mcpapa, this means 11:50. I've always heard time told in this manner, or in ways similar to this. I've also heard it expressed "10 til 12". I know mcpapa and I are from roughly the same part of the country, but I didn't think this was just a regional expression.
January 25, 20197 yr Author I could be wrong, but I think what you are asking about is a colloquialism. A dialect would be how words are pronounced. For example, oil, boil, and soil. A northerner would pronounce them oy-el, boy-el, and soy-el, where a southerner would typically pronounce the same words all, ball, and sall. Like that. Wouldn’t that be an accent?
January 25, 20197 yr Wouldn’t that be an accent? I dated a girl, back in the day, who was a linguist and she told me one time, when I asked the same question, "You cannot speak English with and English accent. You can speak English with a Spanish accent, though." She was British and said the terms are interchangeable these days. Either way, what you are wanting is a phrase used in a particular region or area. That is a colloquialism. Now, students, please get out your grammar books and turn to page 47. :banana:
January 25, 20197 yr Anyway, since I must be serious..... My Father used the term all of the time. I use it as well and have always known it to mean 10 minutes until 12 o'clock or Noon. 10 of Noon.
January 25, 20197 yr It means exactly the opposite of what it looks like it means, which it why I hate it. It means 11:50. It has some arcane reasoning behind it I suspect, but it's nonsensical as far as I'm concerned.
January 26, 20197 yr I grew up hearing the phrases "quarter after", "quarter til" and "half past" all the time. I'm wondering, though, if those are fading from use due to the lack of dial watch/clock faces. Everything now is digital.
January 26, 20197 yr I grew up hearing the phrases "quarter after", "quarter til" and "half past" all the time. I'm wondering, though, if those are fading from use due to the lack of dial watch/clock faces. Everything now is digital. Speaking of the lack of watch/clock faces, in a few years will young people know what is meant by "clockwise" or "counter-clockwise"?
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