Why don’t Americans[1] write down times in the same broken order that they use for dates? You say “ten past eleven”, so why isn’t that 10:11?
[1] And that raises another question – why isn’t there a noun that means “people from the USA?”
In which someone you've never heard of writes about things you have no interest in
Why don’t Americans[1] write down times in the same broken order that they use for dates? You say “ten past eleven”, so why isn’t that 10:11?
[1] And that raises another question – why isn’t there a noun that means “people from the USA?”
A lot of Americans would also say “ten after eleven” instead of “ten past eleven”.There are a couple of other ‘verbal time’ quirks here in the US as well.It’s 9:50. Most americans will say “it’s nine fifty” which is fair enough. However, instead of saying “it’s ten to ten”, I’ve also heard some say “it’s ten till ten” or “it’s ten of ten”. I remember when I first got to the US and I heard “it’s ten of ten” I had no idea what that meant. Does it mean 9:50, 10:10, or something else entirely? It was all a bit bloody confusing to begin with :-)
There is a noun. “Merkin”
A merkin is a pubic wig. It is often confused with Merkan, which, as every a.f.p. subscriber knows, is the correct way of describing someone unfortunate enough to be a denizen of the US.
What’s wrong with Yankees or Yanks? :)
I thought that “yankee” only refered to people from half of the States.