[rwoerz]

Congrats.

Some German natives may argue that the time short forms are wrong as they prefer "dreiviertel" instead of "viertel vor".

[rob74]

Let's not get started with that... those same people also say "viertel vier" to mean 3:15 (one quarter of the "fourth hour" has passed), which is really confusing to the uninitiated, so "viertel nach"/"viertel vor" is preferable IMHO...

[ce4]

It does make sense though (once you know where it comes from):

Before the ubiquity of watches, time was announced using church clocks and bell strikes. There's a big bell for hours (low pitch) and a smaller one for announcing quarters (higher pitch).

Signalling zero is not possible using "zero bell strikes", so 00:00 is signalled by 4 strikes of the quarters bell and 12 strikes of the hour bell.

Thus, the sequences go like:

11:15 1x quarter bell

11:30 2x quarter bell

11:45 3x quarter bell

12:00 4x quarter bell + 1x hour bell

Basically it makes sense then as all the quarters belong to the same hour.

[1718627440]

We can agree that there is a big disagreement, but "viertel nach"/"viertel vor" just sounds plain wrong to me.

[hutattedonmyarm]

it's still correct and should be at least accepted as such, even if not explicitly taught

[dvdgsng]

Let's not get started with that... those same people also say "viertel nach drei" to mean 3:15 (one quarter after the "third hour" has passed), which is really confusing to the uninitiated, so "viertel vier" is preferable IMHO...

Yeah? Well, you know, thats just like uh your opinion, man.

And, its dismissive and ignorant. IMHO.

[brettermeier]

Stay with "viertel vor" please :D Well, it depends on where you are in germany...