Yourdailygerman Advent Calendar #epic
“Telling the time in German – Street Edition“
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This didn’t work for me. It wouldn’t grade My pronunciation!
Hallo, Entshuldigung. Ich in ein bisschen spät zu der Übung gekommen :o) I just wanted to initially say thank you very much for these exercises and agree wholeheartedly with everyone’s praise of the teaching and commitment to feedback, both are priceless to learners.
I also have a question! My Wife (born and schooled in East Germany) also says that 10:15 can be said ‘viertel elf‘ as in ‘it is a quarter of an hour on its way to being 11 o’clock.’ and can also say ‘drei viertel elf‘ instead of ‘viertel vor elf‘ using the same logic (3/4 of an hour on the way to being 11 o’clock). this fits with the more well known ‘halb elf‘. Is this a ‘general’ idea for time telling in German? or more likely a regional thing?
Having grown up in the East, I do know and use this way of saying the time as well, and I also find it extremely logical.
But it is DEFINITELY a regional thing :).
Cari for instance, from Easy German, just doesn’t get it. And she’s not the only one. People from Western Germany act like it’s absolute nonsense.
That’s why I didn’t include it here. You’re safer with the “normal” system.
I just came across something I hadn’t seen before and was wondering how common it is to use “zu” like this:
Jeden Abend bringe ich meinen Sohn zu 7 ins Bett.
Google gave me some results for things like “zu festen Zeiten ins Bett gehen” and “zu einer bestimmten Zeit ins Bett”, but not much for zu + specific time of day.
I’ve never heard it used that way, but of course I understand it.
Probably a regional thing.
I do use the two phrases you mentioned, though. Those are idiomatic to me.
They sound a bit technical.
I’ve just wasted ten minutes on “Es ist halb elf” can’t get either ‘halb’ or ‘elf’ green at all. Can’t get above 70%. To me, I sound exactly like the example. Hugely frustrating, just wish I could hear what I’m saying wrong.
Hmmm, that’s strange!! If you have a way to upload a recording somewhere, you can send me a link and I’ll give it a listen!
Can you say “es ist 10 nach um 7” instead of “es ist 10 nach 7”?
You can, but it’s a bit less idiomatic.
I really liked this. What would be even better, is to be able to hear the correct pronunciation when mine falls short. I am getting fünf and vor and a few others a bit wrong, but I’m struggling to hear how they should sound. Viertel is particularly difficult for some reason.
Just click on “hint”, and then the play button. There, you can hear me say it :)
For “viertel” try an English “fittle”.
Can’t do better than 97% SHAME SHAME SHAME
I need to try again myself. Not sure I can get 100%!!
Yeah, and you can ensure good scores by over-enunciating and separating words from each other so it sounds really unnatural, so “it’s not about getting a perfect score” is definitely a good word. I think, listening to my recorded “viertel”, that it sounds OK… not sure what the thing is looking for on that.
Okay, so I just tried and I can’t get a border around “viertel” either, no matter what variation I try.
AI definitely has limits and one bad thing about it is that you can’t really tell what it wants (except world dominion, of course).
Thank you Emanuel and the community for giving me membership.
Vielleicht ist die umgangssprachliche Wiener Zeit weiter verbreitet, als du denkst. Auf jeden Fall ist sie die logischste.
13:00 = Ein Uhr
13:05 = Fünf nach eins.
13:10 = Fünf vor viertel zwei. / Zehn nach eins.
13:15 = Viertel zwei.
13:20 = Viertel zwei und fünf Minuten.
13:25 = Fünf vor halb zwei.
13:30 = Halb zwei.
13:35 = Halb zwei und fünf Minuten.
13:40 = Fünf vor dreiviertel zwei.
13:45 = Dreiviertel zwei
13:50 = Dreiviertel zwei und fünf Minuten / zehn vor zwei.
13:55 = Fünf vor zwei
14:00 = Zwei Uhr
Der “Pol” zur vollen Stunde hat mehr Anziehungskraft als der “Pol” zur halben Stunde, denn es ist in Ordnung, zur vollen Stunde “zehn vor” und “zehn nach” zu sagen, aber nicht zur halben Stunde.
Ich hatte nicht gewusst, dass Cari diese Zeitsysteme nicht durchschauen konnte – sie schien mir bisher immer eine kluge Frau zu sein. Was ist mit Janusz? ;)
Janusz gets it. Ich glaube Intelligenz hat nix damit zu tun. Die Leute WOLLEN es nicht verstehen, weil ihr eigenes System gut genug funktioniert :).
Das Wiener System ist nicht komplett kohärent. Warum ist es “fünf nach eins” aber “viertel und 5 minuten” – entweder nur “nach” oder nur “und”… das ist meine Meinung :D.
Useful exercise to learn “Street Speak” for time. I’ve never been exposed to before/after the half hour before, always before/after the top of the hour.
Hi!
I wanted to thank the German learning community for sponsoring my membership! It has been so kind, I’m genuinely touched by your kindness. The website is amazing and the nuances that it explains just leaves me feeling like “oh…OH!” every time I read an article.
Thank you again to the community, I look forward to paying in back in the future.
The “halb Elf” through me off
Good!! Better here than in real life :)
I suck at telling time but this was a great quiz!
You can always go with the more straight forward news speak version :). Telling the time is not really part of getting to fluency to be honest.
Thank you, it’s an awesome quiz to refresh the knowledge about time in German! Have a good weekend!
You too!!
Good morning!
Only one typo, apart from the one before the Quiz pointed by Jake.
“title what behind today’s door” (title what is behind today’s door)
One question, which is more usual for z.B. 10:20 – zwanzig nach zehn oder zehn vor halb elf (eine mathematische Übung, wie Ahmad geschieben hat)? (same applies to 10:40)? I’ve heard both versions and don’t know which is more idiomatic…
Bis morgen!
Great question! I think that might be a regional thing. I (East Berlin) prefer basing these things on the half hour, and I feel like people from the West tend to use the full hour.
But it pretty much ends at 20/40. Anything closer to 30 will be related to 30 because it’s just shorter to say.
Vorher den Quiz hast du gesagt: „ And don’t forget… the goal is NOT to get 100% in pronunciation, the goal is that you practice spoken past.“
Wir üben nicht die gesprochene Vergangenheit, sondern die Zeit. ;)
Whops… that was a copy and paste error, because I used the same “how to” section as in a different post.#exposed
” Es ist fünf nach halb sechs” für 17:35 ! Es ist eine mathematische Übung . Wie erstaunlich ! Anstelle meiner Aussprache zu verbessern, mache ich Mathe .
Es sieht aus dass diese Art und Weise ist ziemlich mehr einfach um die Zeit zu sagen . Oder ?
Ich hoffe dir einen schönen Tag.
Bis Morgen
Haha, ja, Kopfrechnen ist definitiv ein Teil davon.
“Es sieht aus dass diese Art und Weise ist ziemlich mehr einfach um die Zeit zu sagen.”
Den Satz verstehe ich nicht genau :).
Im Vergleich zu ” Street talk ” also amtliche Sprache basiert um 0/24 Uhr dass du schon geklärt hast .
I know I should just accept it, but it will now bug me all night … why does the pronunciation of ‘viertel’ sound more like vertel rather than vier+tel?
It’s in part a regional dialect thing. Berlin region tends to make their “i” sound like “ü” in front of “l” and “r”.
Pronouncing it “properly” is significantly harder for the tongue, so you have an example for one syllable “degrading” the other.
Thanks, that was cool and fun
Stimmt!