Telling the time

ElefantEd

Personally I always give the most accurate time I can eg. It's 17.28 kiloseconds after midnight. I don't usually go beyond 4 sf though as greater precision is rarely needed.

IvanOpinion

If someone asks me the time I usually say 'coming up to ..' or 'Just after ...' the nearest 15 minutes.
If they want it more accurately then they can buy their own watch.

Grumpy_chap

SteveJW said:

Can people no longer tell the time or does it no longer matter

Just listened to the news on ITV, newsreader announced it's nearly 7 o'clock

The other day I heard someone ask for the time, they were told it's nearly twenty to one

Maybe the train standing at platform 7 is the nearly 5 to 1

Maybe they can no longer tell the time on an analogue clock / watch

There may well be a context thing here.

Considering two of your examples:

Radio / TV announcers, particularly the morning breakfast shows, give frequent time checks so some flexible conversational style helps to make for easier listening.  I imagine that people plan their schedule that they aim to leave home at, say, 7 o'clock to be sure to arrive at work on time.  "Nearly 7 o'clock" or "just turned 7" are accurate enough for most cases in that type of scenario.
Again, in the evening, the presenters announce the time just ahead of the 7 o'clock programme starting so cannot say "it's 7 o'clock" because it is not quite.  Nearly 7 o'clock is probably accurate enough for most listeners / viewers.

On the other hand, at the train station, a more precise time is required.  Say I plan to catch the 6:58 train, but I am queueing to grab a coffee.  An announcement of "nearly 7 o'clock" doesn't tell me if I have enough time, need to run, or missed the train.  A precise time announcement "it's 6:55" does.

cannugec5

what a what annoys me, is when I hear adverts for a program on TV and they say it will be screened (for example) at 10 o’clock - with no hint of whether it is morning or evening! 

LHW99

Grumpy_chap said:

On the other hand, at the train station, a more precise time is required.  Say I plan to catch the 6:58 train, but I am queueing to grab a coffee.  An announcement of "nearly 7 o'clock" doesn't tell me if I have enough time, need to run, or missed the train.  A precise time announcement "it's 6:55" does.

Of course the reason they brought out the big railway clocks is that when passenger services first started, there were different local times in each area of the country ..........

HillStreetBlues

DullGreyGuy said:

There is also still the potential for confusion if you write in 24hr clock because from 10:00 to 12:59 you cannot tell if its in 24 hour clock or 12 hour clock without further reference. When speaking I find the 24hr clock sounds somewhat odd... "five am" sounds better to me than "oh five hundred hours" and you need the leading 0 to identify its morning in the 24hr clock. 

What does the o stand for in 0600?, Oh my God that's early (Robin Williams as Adrian Cronauer)

Ksw3

My grandparents used to say it was 5 and 20 gone 4... nearly sounds nicer.