Answers
Aug 13, 2012 - 04:28 PM
Ban is used to express 30 minutes passed the hour. The format would be Number + hour + ban. So 10:30 coud be, Shi dian ban. (ten hour half) or shi dian san shi fenzhong (ten hour thirty minutes). To simply say half hour you would say ban xiaoshi
Aug 13, 2012 - 07:17 PM
Aha, so I had parsed the thing wrong. The lesson dialogue (in lesson 36) refers to "yi ge ban xiaoshi", but from the explanation I thought we were looking at (yi ge) (ban xiaoshi) being "one of"..."hour and a half". But it's not, it's actually "yi ge ban"... "xiaoshi", that is, "one and a half of" ... "hours" Got it. Thanks, so, does that mean that "ban" is itself a measure word? Or does it mean that if I want to measure half an hour, I have to do it some other way, perhaps I don't need any measure in such a situation (which would contradict a fairly stern rule that was stated: "_always_ use a measure word")?