Why is it incorrect ?
Il est quinze heures et quart
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Beatriz M.Kwiziq community member
Il est quinze heures et quart
This question relates to:French lesson "Telling time in French - 24-hour clock rules = AM vs PM"
Asked 2 years ago
Jim's right: you mixed the military stile (quinze heures) with the colloquial style (et quart). You can either say:
"quinze heures quinze" (military style 24 hour clock) or "trois heures et quart" (colloquial 12 hour clock). With the 12 hour style, you can also add "du matin" (a.m.) or "du soir" (p.m.) to remove any lingering ambiguity.
Jim J. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Beatriz,
Copied from the lesson:-
"When the time expressed uses hour numbers above 12 (in the "24-hour clock" -> 13h, 14h...), you use instead quinze, trente, quarante-cinq, probably for pronunciation (and elegance) reasons."
eg. "Il est seize heures quinze. It is quarter past four PM."I suspect this is the reason why your answer was considered incorrect (after mid-day)
Hope this helps.
Jim
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