Half nine, Half two, Half eleven ...

[Johnyxxx]

Hello,

Right now I am watching a cooking tv show with a guy who comes from Ireland and he says "it is half nine, "it´s half two" and so on. I would like to know if "half nine" means "8:30" or "9:30", "half eleven" means "10:30" or "11:30" etc.


Thank you very much.

 

[emsr2d2]

The only language I know which uses the construction to mean "half an hour BEFORE the time mentioned" is German. "Halb neun" (which translates to "half nine") is, in fact, 8.30. I'm sure there are other languages that use it but that's the only one I know.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That construction is not used in AmE. We would say "half past".

 

[Skrej]

I believe Russian also refers to the upcoming hour, although in different ways depending upon which side of the half hour the minutes fall.