some difficulties telling the time and dates

[Verona_82]

Hello!

While studying my coursebook I came across the following example:

It's 37 minutes past twelve.

I was a bit surprised, as I've always thought the word "past" refers to hand travels from 12 to 6 o'clock positions (the first semicircle), and those from 6 to 12 o'clock positions - the second semicicle on the face of a clock - would be described using "to". I'd rewrite the example as "It's 23 minutes to one".

Is it OK to say "fourty past twelve, forty two past twelve" etc?

And my second silly question's about dates.. There're two ways of writing dates:
15th March - the fifteenth of March
March 15th - March the fifteenth

But what prepositions should I use when having the second model in a sentence?

He was born in March the fifteenth ?


Thank you!

 

[SoothingDave]

I think most people would call 7:40 "twenty till 8" but there is nothing wrong with saying "40 minutes after 7."

It doesn't matter if you say March 15th or the 15th of March, something happens "on" a date, not "in" it.

 

[Verona_82]

Did I understand you correctly that:

He was born on the fifteenth of March
He was born on March the fifteenth???

or no matter how a date is written - March 15 or 15 March - we should always read it as "on the fifteenth of March"?

 

[SoothingDave]

No, I meant that you should use "on" not "in."

 

[Tdol]

He was born on the fifteenth of March :tick:
He was born on March the fifteenth :tick:

 

[5jj]

I think most people would call 7:40 "twenty till 8"

Or: twenty to eight.

 

[riquecohen]

He was born on the fifteenth of March :tick:
He was born on March the fifteenth :tick:

Or on March fifteenth.

 

[Barb_D]

Or on the Ides of March