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Re: those irregular prepositions

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Thursday, June 22, 2006, 15:09
On 6/22/06, Aidan Grey <taalenmaple@...> wrote:
> Generally, Americans say "two weeks" instead of "fortnight", the same number > of syllables. And for "Tuesday week", we say "a week from Tuesday". If I > have the meanings correct.
"Tuesday week" and friends has some currency in the Southern US. But you won't hear "fortnight" or "fortnightly" - "two weeks" or "biweekly" or "semiweekly" (everyone's confused about those last two so you get both forms with both meanings, which just keeps the confusion going...) What gets me is British timetelling. "Half ten" is short for "half *past* ten", i.e. 10:30. But I never encountered that phrasing in English until I met a Brit, which was later in life, after I'd already studied German. So it sounds to me like it should mean 9:30 instead. -- Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>

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Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...>