time

[tachi]

this is a stupid question
but i don't understand when people say a quarter to five or something like that
i know it mean some time but what time does it mean?

[wind]

a quarter of an hour is the one fourth of it, so sixty divided by four makes fifteen minutes.

on the other hand, a magazine published quarterly refers to magazine published every four months.

[Casiopea]

this is a stupid question
but i don't understand when people say a quarter to five or something like that
i know it mean some time but what time does it mean?

Well, what if we look at it this way.

Draw a clock, a round clock, and then draw a large "+" sign inside the circle so that the circle is divided into four parts. Each part is called a "quarter", or 1/4 of the circle.

The first quarter, the one that starts at 12 and goes to 3, is called "quarter after". When the big hand of the clock is on 3, it's callled "quarter after the hour".

The next quarter, the one that starts at 3 and goes to 6, is called "half-past". When the big hand is on 6, it's called "half-past the hour". "half-past" refers to half the circle/clock.

The next quarter, the one that starts at 6 and ends at 9, is called "quarter to the hour". The word "to" means, towards, going towards 12. When the big hand is on 9, it's called "quarter to".

Examples
12:15 (quarter after 12)
12:30 (half-past 12)
12:45 (quarter to 1)

6:15 (quarter after 6)
6:30 (half-past 6)
6:45 (quarter to 7)

[pinkvirk]

12:45 means quarter to 1:00 not quarter to 12
and similarly 6:45 is quarter to 7:00 not quarter to 12,so i am not agree with this.

Examples
12:45 (quarter to 12)
6:45 (quarter to 6)

[Casiopea]

12:45 means quarter to 1:00 not quarter to 12
and similarly 6:45 is quarter to 7:00 not quarter to 12,so i am not agree with this.

Welcome

You are absolutely correct.
I've corrected the errors.

Thank you