Asking time in English

[Rocker1]

Is it wrong (or bad English) to ask time by saying: "How much is the watch?"

 

[emsr2d2]

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

That is completely wrong for asking the time.

 

[MikeNewYork]

In answer to that question, you would likely hear the price of the watch.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you want to know the time, you can ask:

What is the time?
Have you got the time?
What's the time?
Do you know what the time is?
Do you have the time?

The only reason for mentioning a watch at all might be "I've forgotten to put my watch on. Have you got the time?"

 

[Barb_D]

Or if you suspect your watch is running fast or slow, you can ask something like "What time have you got?" or "What time is it by your watch?" perhaps while pointing to your ow watch with a puzzled expression that says "because what I see on mine can't be right."

 

[emsr2d2]

Rocker1, when you were training to be an English teacher, did you ever come across the phrase "How much is the watch?" as a way of asking what the time is?

 

[Rocker1]

I came across that sentence when reading an easy English book for young learners. I started then to wonder that is it nowadays really possible to ask the time in that way. Have elementary changes taken place in English since the 80´s?
For other than the native speakers of English the kind of thinking behind the question mentioned is not strange at all. In many languages it is not the time that people ask; it is "o´clock" instead. For example in Swedish "Vad ar klockan?" My own pupils tend to say "How much is the o´clock?" before correcting them.
Thanks for everyone who answered.

 

[bhaisahab]

"How much is the watch?" has, as far as I know, never been a correct way to ask the time in English.

 

[emsr2d2]

There have certainly not been such drastic changes in the language since the 1980s. Was the book you found it in written by a native speaker?