The other day is often used to lend credibility about something that never happened. Often an a ‘me too’ story after you mention your car’s engine caught fire - “Same thing happened to me the other day”. It’s similar to the girlfriend you don’t know because she lives in Canada.
I routinely use the “quarter til” or “quarter after” phraseology when referring to 15 minute intervals of time.
East coast American here.
Ditto.
I read it as the “of” in the construction being highlighted, in parallel with “evening of.” Not about “quarter to/til.” As given in the link.
I’d have guessed that “half six” meant (“half to six”) 5:30. Shouldn’t 6:30 be “six half”?
I think “half six” is a Britishism. The British language confuses me. In particular “stupid money” is a phrase heard frequently; it seems to mean either a ridiculously small amount of money or a ridiculously large amount of money. Figure it out by context??
BTW, “next” evolved from the superlative of “nigh” which meant “near” (which evolved from the comparative of “nigh”). So I am annoyed by those who use “next Friday” to mean anything but the nearest (future) Friday.
And that’s how it is in languages like German in Hungarian. The literal translation of “half six” would mean 5:30 in both. I always hiccup when I hear the British use of the phrase as I am momentarily confused as to what is meant.
It’s almost as if they are speaking a different language.
Random thoughts :-
With my age/memory, the other day can mean anything from the day before
yesterday to a day 10 years ago.
We brits are very lazy with language… i expect “half six” is just an abbreviation
of “half past six”.
To avoid confusion with “next friday”, it’s common to say “this coming friday”
??? Well no shit. The point was that Gordon G is in good company in thinking that “half six” would logically be 5:30. Plus I find it interesting linguistically.
Sorry!
Sorry myself. I’m inexplicably and uncharacteristically cranky