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Difference between Half one (two, etc.) and Half past one (two, etc.)

half one (two, etc.)—(UK coll.) thirty minutes after one (two, etc.) o’clock:

  • Instead of arriving at half one in Cape Town, I was only there at half four.

half past one (two, etc.)a commonly used variant of the former:

  • At twenty past twelve we arrived at Farmers Bridge Locks, which we completed by half past one.