Re: those irregular prepositions

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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