Troublesome Times

Today, I’d like to talk about the confusing world of days, dates, and times in English and the mishaps they can cause …

One Tuesday morning, I confidently arrived at my student’s door at 11:00, ready for our English lesson.
He looked at me, puzzled.
“Why are you here? The lesson’s on Tuesday.”
He’d of course confused Thursday with Tuesday – they do sound a bit similar ☹.
Tip: Think of Tuesday like two’s-day – the second day of the week.

And then there’s the classic half two mix-up.
In German, halb zwei means 1:30 – half before two.
But in English, half two means 2:30 – half past two!
Tip: To avoid confusion, say two fifteen, two thirty, two forty-five, etc.

Then we have the confusion with the famous “next Tuesday” problem.
In German, nächsten Dienstag usually means the upcoming Tuesday.
But in English, next Tuesday often means the one after the upcoming Tuesday.
Tip: Always write the exact date, e.g. Tuesday, 6 March.

But be careful how you write dates:
– In the UK, we write day/month/year – so 6/3/2025 means 6 March.
– In the US, they write month/day/year – so 6/3/2025 means June 3.
Tip: Always write it in full, particularly in emails and just right the number on its own – it’s quite happy as 6 instead of 6th!

And one more cultural twist:
If an English person says they went to a great party last night, it probably just means yesterday evening – not an all-night affair! Now you can imagine how that misunderstanding might cause problems…
And finally: when we use time as an adjective, we drop the “s” and add a hyphen. So we say:
1. a two-hour journey (not two-hours)
2. a 30-minute meeting (not 30-minutes)

Little things, big difference. Especially when you’re trying to be in the right place at the right time!