Time and distance

Probably time for a short language update: The Swedish language has two different words for the English word "long". Annoyingly, both versions are very similar in both written and spoken forms. The first "Långt" refers to length, while the other form, "Längt", refers to time. The word Långt also covers for the English word "tall" as well. When some one asks how long (hur lång) you are, they are not referring to a potential sexual encounter. Most probably. They want to know how tall you are. It's not correct to use the Swedish word "hög" instead, which means "high". Even though it might seem to fit better than asking someone how long they are. Time can be expressed in a few different ways: När (which also means "near") means "when" Hur Dags means "what time ?". Längt, as I mentioned, refers to length, or duration, of time. Rather than a specific point in time that the other 2 refer to. Hur dags is used when asking a question. När can also be used in question form, as well as in statement form. When something is to happen right now, it's usual to say "nu är det dags" - "now it's time". Telling the time is uniquely Swedish. As you would guess. It all starts out well enough. Until you get near to the half hour. Then the counting system gets turned on it's head briefly. Here's the guts of it: 25 minutes after the hour is known as "5 minutes before the half hour"; Half an hour past the hour is known as "half an hour before the next hour"; 25 minutes before the hour is known as (hold on to your lunch) "5 minutes after half an hour before the next hour". Then it kind of becomes normal again. So 25 minutes past 4 would be referred to as "5 minutes before half 5". 4:30pm will be EITHER "half five", or 1630. Explains why I'm always an hour late everywhere.