GRAMMAR – Telling the Time
There are two ways to tell the time in English.
The TRADITIONAL British way and the NEWER American way.
In the traditional British way, we say the minutes, or portion of an hour (quarter or half), followed by a preposition (past, or to) and then the hour.
The US method is more direct and often easier for English learners to grasp. We say the time as if we were reading a digital clock.
So, for example, 09:20 would be “twenty past nine” in the traditional method, and “nine twenty” in the new method.