How do you say the year?

[Sethos]

Sorry, disagree, Sethos. As GNEP says, your way may be an Americanism, but I don't believe it is English.

Yes, this depends on weather you are using the queen's english or "bastardized" english (IE. american english)

BTW, if you are pontificating on English grammar, then you may consider spelling it correctly

I never payed to much attention during spelling in the second grade...it's been the bain of my exsistance ever since...

I'm happy to see there are more grammar nuts here than just me

AZ

and proud of it!!

~Sethos

[Greebe]

Yes, this depends on weather you are using the queen's english or "bastardized" english (IE. american english)

Couldn't agree more. If it weren't for The PIT (et al) things would get mighty boring around here

and yes the whether is quite fine down here in South Florida

[az]

Originally posted by Sethos
I never payed to much attention during spelling in the second grade...it's been the bain of my exsistance ever since...

It's bane

and proud of it!!

~Sethos

Absolutely!

AZ

[az]

LOL Greebe! That was BAD!

AZ

[Strahd]

How about telling time? 20 of 10. I usually have sit down and figure out if that's 20 past or 20 to.

[az]

Oh, that's easy - you just say 20 vor 10 (20 before ten) or 20 nach 10 (20 after ten), or viertel vor 10 (a quarter to ten) or viertel nach 10 (quarter past 10), or halb 10 (half an hour before 10), or dreiviertel 10 (a quarter to 10 for intellectuals), or combinations, such as 5 nach halb 10 (5 minutes after half an hour before 10).

You either use 1-12 hours without am and pm (you can say "vormittags", "nachmittags", "abends", "morgens" etc. to clarify), or you just use 24 hours.

You write using twelfe or twenty-four hours. "7:30 Uhr" (pronounced "7 Uhr 30").

AZ

[Brian Ellis]

Ach so, but if you say half ten in colloquial English, it means half PAST ten, not halb 10, because we never say half BEFORE 10 or half TO 10, which is half nine or, better, half past nine, or better again, 09.30! Verstehen-sie?

Sethos, since when was the Queen English? In fact, she probably has roughly the same quantity of English blood in her veins as Saddam Hussein, if you look at her genealogy. In any case, her English is far from perfect, either in pronunciation or grammar. Much as I hate to admit it, the little squirt she has as a Prime Minister probably speaks better English than she does, but that's probably because he was educated in Scotland

Anyway, the expression Queen's (King's) English is no longer current. It is replaced by Standard Southern English or Standard Received English (spoken) or Standard Written English.

[GNEP]

Or Oxford Received Pronunciation.

Although there were plenty of people at university there who haven't got a clue about "proper" english or more simply didn't care...

[az]

I understand perfectly, Brian

It's interesting to see those small differences between languages.

Oh, BTW, just say "Du" instead of "Sie"

It's more personal, used between friends, used from adults when speaking to children, used to express lack of respect when used without permission towards adults, and used on the 'net

AZ

[Topha]

Originally posted by az
It's more personal, used between friends, used from adults when speaking to children, used to express lack of respect when used without permission towards adults, and used on the 'net

AZ

Yeah, and at the moment Im in that terrible stage where people dont know which one they should address me with, so they either flip from one to another all the time, or choose the wrong one (people I dont like say DU, and people I like say SIE )

[az]

I defeat this problem by being reserved to people I don't like (they say "Sie" then), and being nice and talkative to people I do like (so they say "Du")

AZ

[High_Jumbllama]

Originally posted by Sethos
Yes, this depends on weather you are using the queen's english or "bastardized" english (IE. american english)

. . . .
~Sethos

I prefer to think of it as the yank's english though your wording is true as well.

[Topha]

Originally posted by az
I defeat this problem by being reserved to people I don't like (they say "Sie" then), and being nice and talkative to people I do like (so they say "Du")

AZ

Yeah, its no problem to offer someone the Du, but its a bit more difficult to explain someone (maybe even your boss ) to please stop saying Du to you

I really hated that woman at the place where I jobbed before I went to university, and she kept saying Du, but she was my boss after all, and I had to say Sie

[az]

I know what you're saying

AZ

[Wulfman]

what time should the term "viertel zwei" (quarter two) indicate?

I guess that one is only used in vienna...

mfg
wulfman