#americansim

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The Astronauts - New Dixieland Blues (from 1983 album: It's All Done By Mirrors)

America your garbage Betrays your brave new land An institute of warfare, Your children born in cans. In your pleasant urban back streets Your kids don't stand a chance But the CIA pulls all the strings That make Bing Crosby dance.

[philipsrabson]

Americanisms #9

Telling the Time

As I write, the local time is twenty past ten. In the morning.

Of course, this will get published later. After I've finished writing, obviously, but maybe even later than that. The things computers can do these days. But even if I published it now, the chances are you won't be reading this at twenty past ten.

It may be that you don't use the phrase 'twenty past ten', though I guess you understand it.

This is my point. Telling the time is different in the US. More likely, people say 'ten twenty'. And why not? It's shorter and unambiguous. In twenty minutes' time, it will be 'ten forty'. I'd say, 'twenty to eleven', but not here. Mostly. What will be the time thirty-five minutes from now? Ten fifty-five? Or five to eleven?

This is the overlapping area of time telling. The intersection of the sets. I think most people in both the UK and US understand the time no matter how it's said, with the words 'to' and 'past' or with just numbers. It depends on the exact time, I guess, and their mood and what they're used to, not where they were born.

But here is the difference in American time telling: the word 'of'.

Would you know what I mean if I said I'd like to meet you at 'ten of three'?

It's an Americanism. As far as I'm aware. Here, the 'of' typically means 'to', so 'ten of three' means 'ten to three'. But there's a context required for this to work. Especially when people drop the hour.

"I'll see you there at ten of."

"Sorry, when?"

The 'ten of' here needs to refer to a time that is imminent, or close to a previously agreed time. 'Ten of' on its own doesn't mean a whole lot. Either we're already in the hour in which you're planning on meeting and you want to met ten minutes before the next o'clock, or you're changing a previously arranged time from, say, quarter to nine to ten to nine.

It's shorter, it saves time. Ironic? Not unless there's a victim, the English majors might think.

I'm not sure I fully get it, though. Why not just say, 'ten to'? Might that be confused for 'ten two' meaning two minutes past ten?

Of course not! That was twenty minutes ago!