About time
Tell me please, what does mean apostrophe in time context?
For example:
- What's time?
- It's 10 o'clock.
Why o'clock has apostrophe? Is it contraction? How it's seems fully?
Thanks in advance!
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 3
3
It is an old contraction for "of the clock." We substitute the apostrophe for the omitted letters.
2
It's a contraction of "of the clock". Which also means "according to the clock"
So 'it's 10 of the clock', or 'it's 10 according to the clock'', or 'according to the clock it's 10''.
"Of the clock" isn't used any more in everyday speech.
"According to the clock" is still used sometimes.
0
What's _the_ time? Jean's answer is good - it is purely historical.
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