Not sucky, just dumb

[Broomjockey]

"Quarter of" would have confused the snot out of me too. Quarter after, Quarter 'til. These are terms I know. Still seems more complicated than saying 7:45.

[ShinyGreenApple]

My Mom is forever doing the 'of' thing. I know what it means, but it still makes more sense, to me at least, to say "A quarter till". We argue about it every time

[Bagga]

I feel that even the use of "til" is a bit unnecessary.

What's wrong with the standard "a quarter to" and "a quarter past"?

[Andara Bledin]

As I mentioned earlier, the whole "of" is part of the larger phrase, "quarter of an hour" and even saying "till" would assume that the listener understands that the measurement is in hours.

Which is why I use whole minutes instead of fractional hours.

^-.-^

[XCashier]

"Quarter of" would have confused the snot out of me too. Quarter after, Quarter 'til. These are terms I know. Still seems more complicated than saying 7:45.

My former boss used to say that all the time. "Be here by a quarter of." I never, ever understood whether he meant "quarter to" or "quarter after". It drove me crazy!

And I also prefer saying 7:45. No misunderstandings that way!

[aurelemsrealm]

I commonly use the "til" and "after" phrases when telling time: quarter 'til, quarter after, half past, 20 'til, 10 after, etc. In my mind, I automatically visualize the circular clock face when I tell time. The funny part is that my wrist watch and cell phone are both digital displays, but I still visualize it as a circular clock face and tell the time in those terms if someone asks me what time it is. It just seems like a more natural flow of conversation than telling time to the precise minute, I guess.

[morgana]

My former boss used to say that all the time. "Be here by a quarter of." I never, ever understood whether he meant "quarter to" or "quarter after".

Quite aside from the whole "quarter to/quarter til/quarter after/digital time" thing, I simply can't wrap my head around this. Wouldn't you figure out what he meant after the first time he said it?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Wow, until I read this thread I never even thought about it...I guess I always thought "quarter of" was sorta universal...

I say "quarter of" meaning 15 minutes before; and "quarter after"; however, I say X:30, not half past... sometimes I say "quarter to" also, now that I think about it...usually I just stick to actual hour:minute, though

At first I figured the confusion was the lack of an actual hour, meaning he said "a quarter of" and I was thinking, "a quarter of when?" but I knew it meant 15 minutes before whatever time. I wouldn't keep just repeating the same phrase, though...obviously the girl wasn't getting it, I would have just said 7:45 and be done with it...

[XCashier]

Quite aside from the whole "quarter to/quarter til/quarter after/digital time" thing, I simply can't wrap my head around this. Wouldn't you figure out what he meant after the first time he said it?

No, because sometimes he meant "quarter to" and sometimes he actually meant "quarter after"!