Why do some Americans say one fourth instead of a quarter?

[fosterma]

Why do some people in the USA not use 'a quarter' and instead say 'one fourth'

A recipe might say one fourth of a cup - but I think they say 'one half' but not quarter

Sounds so odd to my ear

Because they speak a different dialect to you. They say lots of things differently to us and sometimes differently to each other depending on region.

For the same reason they say things like gasoline and sidewalk. It’s a different dialect.

Im sure they wonder why we say 1 quarter and not 1 fourth 🤷‍♀️

Because they say things differently over there. My (American) DH used to get confused when I'd tell him the time using "quarter to" or "quarter past". Apparently not something commonly said in the US.

Maybe because they have a quarter as a coin? Who knows? It sounds odd to me but then I’m not American. They probably think we say strange things too.

Surely, both are correct? Do you not say one third or one tenth? I don’t think this is a remotely American thing.

We also say one quarter. Both are used. It’s a large country with regional quirks. Quarter is more common by me.

And they buy milk by the quart.

A quarter cup is a strong a standard volume when baking in the US.

Is this really a question about trying to udnerstand why other cultures use language differently or is there a statement behind the bafflement?

Why? Because they do. It still makes perfect sense. The English spread their language around much of the globe and, in so doing, they handed it over to be spoken by the inhabitants of each country in whatever way made sense to them.

As a cross-pond transplant, I can confirm that this is true about time expression. All the past and to expressions are used much more frequently in the UK compared to where I grew up in the US. People there are more likely to use the actual numbers, e.g. nine twenty rather than twenty past nine. And Americans usually separate the units with a : rather than a . so 9:20 rather than 9.20. Additionally, they rarely use 24h timings, even on tickets.

I would say that 1/4 cup/teaspoon could be described as either a fourth or a quarter. I'd be more likely to say three quarters of a cup rather than three fourths but the US is enormous country compared to some and there are many, many regions with their own expressions and turns of speech.

Dialect.

On my last visit to the States, I was asked the following:

"Is everywhere like Downton Abbey in the UK?"
"Do you really have plastic caps that are attached to drinks bottles? How can you drink properly?"
"Are you Welsh?" (I speak with most English accent ever!)
"It rains a lot in the UK doesn't it?"

I did love it there though! ♥️

Not sure.

However have learnt they commonly don't say double in string on numbers - and many seem blown away at how useful that - so 33445 they wouldn't say double three or triple three ( if there were 333) but say each number but they then often ask why we then go to 8888 to double 8 double 8 not quad and I've no idea why.

They also use far more eleven hundred rather than one thousand one hundred.

There are quite a few number differences in langauge between US english and UK english.

It is their way of speaking, it is not wrong, its just different to how English speak and measurements are different, its quite easy to convert and adapt.

I have always been intrigued by it😃

True.

Other examples being in the US you'll often hear, for example, 183 as "one eighty three", and bigger numbers broken down into pairs, e.g. 1453 becomes "fourteen fifty three:.1098 is "ten ninety eight".

Once you get your ear in it's actually quite handy when talking over the phone, radio etc.

Don't they say "a quarter after" rather than quarter past? Sure I've heard that.

They get the date backwards as well, IE 1/13/26 instead of 13 January 26.

They copied it from us. We only changed to DD MM YYYY around 50 years ago. I think the international format is YYYY MM DD

"They" write the date differently - just like many other places.

Of all the possible points of difference between British and American English and that’s the one you pick?
Weak.

My friend’s adopted Korean daughters (grew up in US) were fascinated with the royal family and assumed we all drank tea, but out of bone china tea cups like from a tea set. They also assumed we drank loose tea and blends like Assam and Earl grey.

The most common way globally is DD MM YYYY even though there’s an international standard to do it YYYY MM DD.

Brilliant, funny take on this is Mike Harding, “ A Limey in New York” Off his Red Specs album
You can watch it on YouTube now

'A fourth of a cup of chicken broth. STORE BOUGHT IS FINE'

It's never fine.