Do Americans really say a quarter of eight instead of a quarter to eight? That's how Stephen King someitmes writes it.
by 
ChrisDG
ANSWERS: 16
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Yes we do. ( and whats the matta wit the way weee Americans speak? )
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This is true. Both actually. Americans are well known for having lazy tongues: meaning we figure out how to say something with the least effort. The French are the main accusers of this particular "crime." And it is true if you watch the French while they speak, in any one sentence their mouths move crisply to different positions, where most Americans are teeth-talkers, moving our lips as little as possible. I had a class on speech pathology in college. I suspect "quarter of" evolved from the fact that "quarter" ends in a closed mouth, making it easier to transition to an open-mouther vowel: "of."
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yes .and i didnt know any better until i traveled out of the country.
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I'm originally from the south eastern US but have lived more than 40 places in my life including the UK. I've heard. A quarter of A quarter to A quarter til A quarter before A quarter fo (before)
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Uh-yuh! In northern New England (which is where Steven King is from, and still lives), nearly everyone born and raised here, says "quarter of". When visiting other parts of the country, or people here from other parts of the country, or some who have gone to college, or were otherwise exposed to various dialects and cultures, I do occasionally hear other forms of the same expression as mentioned in other answers. "Quarter of", is dominant here though.
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I personally say 'quarter to eight', but do know people that say 'quarter of eight'. I always have to stop and think about it when someone says 'of' though to figure out if they mean 'to' or 'after'.
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All that TaoZen said and .. my all time favorite, 7:45.
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I say 15 til 8.
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Half past the monkeys a$$ and quarter ________ his balls. fill in the blank: A) to B) of Answer B just don't sound right, From southeast USA
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Not in the area I live (Northern California) I've only heard it said "quarter to". But, according to some other answers, other areas of the country differ.
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I say quarter to or quarter till
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Not only do Americans in various locales say "quarter to" and "quarter of", one person may say "this weekend" to mean either the one past or the one upcoming. On Sunday (our calendars show it as first day of week), what does "this Saturday" mean? Obviously, it must be the Saturday in this calendar week which is the upcoming Saturday. But, alas, it often means go back to last week, yesterday, to find it. I hate ambiguity so I say 7:45 and I never say "this ____day" or "this weekend". I say "the past weekend" or "the upcoming weekend". And who says "quarter" ends with closed mouth? Not my mouth. Btitish are the laziest mouths such as "bo'uh o' bee-ah (bottle of beer)" and "half six". Does that mean 3? And in some parts of Scotland they say "back of six". Then, when you ask a group of Scots what it means, some say "after" and others say "before".
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I say quarter TO eight but I've heard it said both ways. Americans are not usually sticklers for grammar in speech.
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Like many other alleged Americanisms, "quarter of eight" is old west country parlance, taken over there in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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I say it both ways! +5
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I say a quarter till. +5
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