Quarter of five

[dedicatedenglish]

Some Americans say "a quarter of five" to mean "a quarter to five" . However, I've never heard anyone say "five of five", "ten of five" to mean five to five or ten to five. Is it acceptable to say "five of five" or "ten of five" in the US?

 

[Tarheel]

According to Google "ten to" is used but "five to" isn't. Hm. Anyhow, if you want to use them go right ahead. Probably nobody will even notice.

 

[dedicatedenglish]

Anyhow, if you want to use them go right ahead. Probably nobody will even notice.

You mean if I say "ten of five" or "five of five", people would easily understand it?

 

[emsr2d2]

According to Google "ten to" is used but "five to" isn't. Hm. Anyhow, if you want to use them go right ahead. Probably nobody will even notice.

The OP didn't ask about using "ten to" or "five to". They want to know if an AmE speaker would use "five of" and "ten of".

 

[Amigos4]

The OP didn't ask about using "ten to" or "five to". They want to know if an AmE speaker would use "five of" and "ten of".

No. This AmE speaker would not say “five of five” or “ten of five”. It sounds odd to me. I would say “five till five” or “10 till five”.

 

[Skrej]

However, I've never heard anyone say "five of five", "ten of five" to mean five to five or ten to five.

I have.

Is it acceptable to say "five of five" or "ten of five" in the US?

Yes

You'll hear 'of', 'to', and 'till' all used. It varies by speaker and probably region -note the disagreement between me and Amigos, both native AmE speakers.

As Tarheel (another native AmE speaker) mentioned, nobody's likely to even notice which preposition you use. They're going to be focused on the numbers.

 

[Tarheel]

You mean if I say "ten of five" or "five of five", people would easily understand it?

Yes, I think they would.

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes, I think they would.

I think it would be harder for BrE speakers to work it out, simply because we don't use "quarter of". If they're familiar with that AmE usage, they'd have more chance. If they've never heard of it, they'd probably not know whether "of" meant "past" or "to".

 

[SoothingDave]

I think it would be harder for BrE speakers to work it out, simply because we don't use "quarter of". If they're familiar with that AmE usage, they'd have more chance. If they've never heard of it, they'd probably not know whether "of" meant "past" or "to".

This was me trying to figure out if "half five" meant 4:30 or 5:30.

 

[Skrej]

This was me trying to figure out if "half five" meant 4:30 or 5:30.

When I was learning German, I'd mess up the half hours because German refers to :30 as half of the coming hour, not the past hour. So 7:30 translated as 'half eight', but I was still thinking in English and would say 'half seven' which was actually 6:30.