...AND A HALF...

Good morning. Do you know which one of the following sentences is incorrect? a) I have been working for one hour and a half. b) I have been working for one and a half hours. It is very common for students of English to use sentence (a), but native speakers would use sentence (b). In English we say one and a half hours and NOT one hour and a half. The expression ...and a half... has the following structure: NUMBER AND A HALF PLURAL OBJECT Example 1 My son is five and a half years old. Example 2 I have been living in Barcelona for three and a half months. Example 3 She drank one and a half bottles of wine and she is very drunk (borracha). Notice that the object is plural after this structure, even when it is ONE and a half (years, months, bottles). That's because the quantity is more than one, and is therefore considered plural. If we use a fraction of less than one, then the object is singular. Example 4 She drank half a bottle of wine with lunch. If you have any questions about today's Daily Vitamin, please don't hesitate to contact me. Enjoy the rest of your day!