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Ask for help > Telling the time - which punctuation is to be used?
Telling the time - which punctuation is to be used?
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SVieira
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Telling the time - which punctuation is to be used?
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Hi, there!
When teaching ss to tell the time, we always pay the utmost attention to things like "after" ("e.g. - It �s a quarter after five.") or "to" (e.g. - She called me at twenty to six"), but there is one thing that´s been confusing me - which punctuation should be used to separate hours from minutes when showing the time in numbers? Can anyone tell me which is correct - 2:10 or 2.10 (or maybe any other)?
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29 May 2015
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kohai
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Electronic clocks usually show 2:10, but we normally write 2.10. P.S. ..and I teach to say �(a) quarter past five �. |
29 May 2015
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lyg7703
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I �m from China and many people here use the expression of 2:10. I notice the westerners usually use the other one. Both them are OK. |
29 May 2015
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redcamarocruiser
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To my knowledge (but I did not attend secretarial or business school) the only acceptable format in the US is 2:10 . This business blog lists the format from style manuals accepted as authoritative in the US However, this may be a generational thing, and young people may be writing the time as 2.10 , although I have personally never seen it. I am aware that young people sometimes write a period (full stop) in phone numbers where formerly we wrote dashes. 1-800-555-1212 (old way) 1.800.555.1212 (newer way) |
29 May 2015
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JuliaKaraban
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I was taught to say " It �s a quarter past five. " Which is correct past or after?
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29 May 2015
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Apodo
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British English - (a) quarter past, (a) quarter to US English - I �ve heard after, and also til instead of to - have to wait for the US guys to confirm that. In Australia we use British English (mostly): We write 2.10 or say it �s two ten. We write phone numbers 07 1234 5678 using spaces |
29 May 2015
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SVieira
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"A quarter after five"? What is that, where was my mind? It �s definitely "a quarter past five", that �s how I teach it (I guess I must have been thinking "what we teach our students when we want them to say that the clock hands show it �s after five", so I must have written that); or maybe I �ve heard somewhere "after five", but I can �t remeber it. Anyway, it sounds strange to me, I always say and teach "past five"... So, first of all, my apologies for this mess ("after" instead of past"). Now, my question came from this: being Portuguese, I always write 2h10 ("h" stands for "hours"), but even though the English word "hours" also starts with an "h" (like our Portuguese "horas"), I just knew that trying to use the same structure would not be correct. Reading your answers and the weblinks you so generously posted, it seems that a period separating hours from minutes would be the rule in British English, and using a colon to separate them looks more like American English, so I will go for the period (we are expected to teach mainly British English). And for all of you, here �s a big and truly heart-felt thank you for all your contributions! |
30 May 2015
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redcamarocruiser
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I can confirm Apodo �s feeling about usage in the US. We do use after and �til. .
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30 May 2015
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HiFly
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Well I �m British and I have in all my (many) years always found it to be 2:45 and not 2.45 in writing numerical time (i..e. the use of the colon and not the full stop). |
30 May 2015
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Apodo
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We also use both forms depending whether it is typed or handwritten. I just checked some appointments. A reminder letter from the dentist is typed and uses a colon. The handwritten card from the doctor uses a single dot, but it isnoton the line like a full stop, but higher up in the centre of the space between the numbers. |
30 May 2015
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