Korean Job Discussion Forums

[asams]

I had a question about a particular phrase the other day re: how to say 90 minutes versus 30 minutes.

The phrase on the board was "a half and an hour" meaning 90 minutes. I've never heard this expression and in America we say "an hour and a half." Is this a British English phrase?

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[asams]

Thanks. I told her I have never heard it and she said she hears it all the time on tapes and listening exercises. I told her that it should be changed then because it's incorrect and she swore it was correct. I tried to make her feel better by saying the only way I could see if it was used was if it were a British phrase or antiquated.

Any oldies out there care to chime in and let me know if this is just an old phrase? Just wanna cover all bases before I tell her that it is absolutely incorrect

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

[asams]

thanks again

[DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP]

Actuallly I think she just means 'a half an hour' to day 30 minutes and chucked the extra 'and' in there by mistake....

[iammac2002]

Maybe your teacher heard "a half an hour", and just thinks it's something else.

[asams]

Yeah that's my feeling also. I asked her if she was referring to 30 minutes or 90 and she said 90 so I think she's just getting the phrasing wrong or placing an extra 'and' in there. I don't want to attack her because she does speak English very well but I think she is completely wrong on this and I'm trying to help her out by telling her the correct phrasing

[iammac2002]

Well, asams, what will happen if you just let her go on using this phrase? Other people might just be confused about it, and probably ask her to repeat what she said. Does she actually teach? If it's the lady I'm thinking about, then she probably doesn't really teach much anyway. And if she does teach this to the kids... you are only here for a few more months, it will not matter to you what the kids say.

So I think, unless it's one of your co-teachers, don't mention it again. She might just not like it, you know.

[blackjack]

"a half and an hour" gets 112 google hits (with this thread at the top)

"an hour and a half" gets 4,480,000 hits

I guess that answers that

[Moldy Rutabaga]

We have expressions like "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie" or "four score and twenty" from languages such as German, where the smaller number is counted before the decimal (4 and 20 = 24). But to say "a half and an hour" does not make sense because the "half" isn't initially clear; a half of what? Whoever wrote this might have been honestly mistaken. It does not occur in any Middle English or any dialectal variants that I know of.

Ken:>

[asams]

[iammac2002]

[asams]

it was the kids who told her I corrected her. I think I made her feel bad about that, but I would rather the kids learn the correct way than save face for someone else while the kids are taught incorrect phrases