How to Say "Half Past Eight" in French

huit heures et demie

In French, half past eight is huit heures et demie.

What does it mean word for word?

The phrase huit heures et demie literally translates to 'eight hours and half'.

While huit heures et demie means half past eight, huit heures et quart is used for quarter past eight.

The word demie is in the feminine form to agree with the feminine noun heure.

English speakers often mistakenly use the masculine demi instead of the feminine demie required by the noun heure.

The word huit contains an 'h' that was added in Middle French to prevent people from confusing it with the word 'vit'. This was necessary because the letters 'u' and 'v' were often indistinguishable in writing.
While huit heures et demie is standard, French speakers often use a 24-hour clock in official schedules, meaning 8:30 PM would be vingt heures trente.
While you use huit heures et demie for the time, if you were describing a 'half-finished' object, you would use the masculine demi instead.

Réveille-toi, Marie ! Il est huit heures et demie.
Wake up, Marie! It's half past eight.
This sentence is useful for seeing how to tell someone it is half past eight in a waking context.
Tatoeba #9989485 by felix63, translation #11615682 by tieguy
Le cours d'anglais commença à huit heures et demie.
The English lesson started at half past eight.
This sentence is useful for expressing the start time of a lesson.
Tatoeba #2354421 by nimfeo, translation #12374103 by sundown
Il est huit heures et demie.
It's half past eight.
This sentence is useful for stating the current time.
Tatoeba #8507677 by Adelpa, translation #434820 by lukaszpp
Il est huit heures trente.
It is eight-thirty.
1 more sentence on Tatoeba

Lucas and Emma are meeting for breakfast at a cafe.

Sources

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