Whats the clock? Telling the time in Norwegian

Norwegians have a fascinating way of telling the time that is incredibly different to English and is often very confusing to all so its very helpful to know how it works. First of all, not such a big deal but when they write the time they will ALWAYS use a 24hr clock system. So rather than writting 8pm they would write 20.00. Although in England we would probably never do this, we are very familiar with a 24 hour clock system so its not too strange. I was once told Americans use it very little or in some areas not at all and if that is the case for you, I advise you check it out to avoid confusion. The whole AM/PM thing confuses Norwegians and in my experience they nearly always guess wrong, assuming AM is after midday or a reference to afternoon. Perfectly reasonable assumtion but what I always tell them is that it goes in alphabetical order, I think this is the easiest way for those not used to it to remember. When talking, the 24 hour system is basically never used, apparently common sense can be used when talking but in text we must specify. I dont fully understand this either by the way.

So thats the simple bit, now for the more confusing. 6:30 is said "six thirty" or more often "half passed six" in England. Even more often though the 'passed' is ommited and we just say "half six". This is all well and good however in Norway they do the opposite. 6:30 would be said "halv syv" or translated "half seven". As the word half is said to mean half way towards. This can cause a lot of complications, around my friends and family over here our rule is whichever language you say it in, you follow their rules. So if its 8:30 we can either say "half eight" or "halv ni". For anyone visiting Norway, always double check when someone says it to you, dont assume because they are talking English they are using the English system. I have had this problem more than once.

So they are the most common issues but for interests sake I will continue to explain the crazy Norwegian system as it confuses me greatly. 8:20, simply, "eight twenty" or "twenty past eight" in English yes? In Norwegian its "ti på halv ni" which translates as "ten to half nine". This is rather confusing if you ask me and made even more so when I first hear it as "på"typically translates as "on". So direcetly translated in my head I hear "ten on half nine". So first you must remember its half to nine not half past and then remember that for some stupid reason on in this instance means "towards" and not "on top of" which is how I would naturally inturprit itand therefore think they menat passed. I hope you are following this?

When you get used to it it really isnt all that mental but you really need a heads up or you can become very confused. Often to be safe I say it very clearly for example 6:30 I say "six thirty" and things like this as a safe way to avoid confusion. The theory when simplified is in a way actually very simple, the English clock has one divide line at half passed, everything upto that is refered to as "passed", everything after it as "to". Norwegian time telling has two dividing lines, as shown in the picture below which hopefully makes the whole thing quite simple.

So I hope after deliberatly confusing you so you understand slightly what I went through I hope it all makes a lot more sense. It is now "ti over halv fem"/"ten over half five" (16.40) and I must get be off.