Twenty-five to

English Freak · Aug 13, 2011

A man asks "What time is your train?" and the woman answers "Twenty-five to."
What exactly does the woman mean?

5jj · Aug 13, 2011

English Freak said:
A man asks "What time is your train?" and the woman answers "Twenty-five to."
What exactly does the woman mean?

She means that train is due to depart at XX.35, when both the man and the woman know which hour 'XX' refers to.

The woman could also mean that the train departs hourly at 25 minutes to the hour.

Which one was meant would be clear from the context.

TomUK · Aug 14, 2011

fivejedjon said:
She means that train is due to depart at XX.25, when both the man and the woman know which hour 'XX' refers to.

The woman could also mean that the train departs hourly at 25 minutes past the hour.

I am slightly confused now and maybe that's the reason why I avoid travelling by train in Britain. When somebody tells me my train goes at 25 to I will expect to depart at XX:35. Should the train go at 25 past I would expect the departure time to be XX:25. If the train happens to leave on the full hour (XX:00) I would expect to hear something like 'the train leaves on the hour'.

TomUK

Barb_D · Aug 14, 2011

Same here.

Quarter to = XX:45
Quarter after: XX:15

25 to = XX:35.
25 after = XX:25.

5jj · Aug 14, 2011

TomUK said:
I am slightly confused now and maybe that's the reason why I avoid travelling by train in Britain. When somebody tells me my train goes at 25 to I will expect to depart at XX:35. Should the train go at 25 past I would expect the departure time to be XX:25. If the train happens to leave on the full hour (XX:00) I would expect to hear something like 'the train leaves on the hour'.

TomUK

Sorry, my blunder. I have corrected it now in my original post.

Barb_D · Aug 14, 2011

So we all agree.

"25 to" equals 35 minutes after the hour.

5jj · Aug 14, 2011

Barb_D said:
So we all agree.

"25 to" equals 35 minutes after the hour.

Yes.

I am going to the end of the garden to eat worms.

Barb_D · Aug 14, 2011

Ick.
I'll amend an earlier post. Grammar and typos are two things not to lose sleep over, nor eat worms over!

Twenty-five to

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