Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[shvetsov2005]

Hello,

I have met the following text:
"Tours run on the hour every hour"
Could you explain what does it actually means? When do tours start?


Alexander .

[redset]

On the hour (not 'on hour') means at a time that's exactly on the hour: 9 o'clock, 3:00, midnight etc. (but not nine-thirty or 3:05). Your sentence says that there is a tour every hour, and it starts at something o'clock; so there's probably one at 1 o'clock, another at 2 o'clock etc. If the tours ran every two hours on the hour, if one began at 1 o'clock the next would be at 3 o'clock, two hours later.

Your sentence doesn't actually say when the tours start to run each day though. It implies there's a tour every hour, day and night, but that's probably unlikely!