noun
1
BAD : The train arrived at exactly twelve past three.
GOOD : The train arrived at exactly twelve minutes past three.
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When telling the time, minutes must be used after all numbers except
five, ten, twenty, and twenty-five .
Compare: 'It's twenty (minutes) past ten.' ( minutes can be used) 'It's twenty-three minutes past ten.' ( minutes must be used)
2
BAD : The college is a twenty minutes bus ride from my flat.
GOOD : The college is a twenty-minute bus ride from my flat.
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Using numbers
Day, month, minute, mile, kilo etc are always SINGULAR when used (with a number) immediately before a noun: ‘a six-minute wait’, ‘a ten-second silence’, ‘a five-mile race’.
My travel agent had arranged a 6-day coach tour.
The company provides a three-month training course.
Compare: ‘We waited for thirty minutes: ‘We had a thirty-minute wait.’
When you say 100, 1000 etc , or write these numbers in words, use a hundred, a thousand (WITH a ):
The palace was build a thousand years ago.
Compare: ‘The palace was built 1000 years ago.’
For emphasis or to be exact, it is possible to use one instead of a :
I am one hundred percent against the idea.
After a/one/five/twelve etc , the words hundred, thousand, etc are always SINGULAR and are NOT followed by of :
Five hundred children are born in the city every day.
More than three thousand people were there.
Similarly, of is NOT used after 100, 250, 3000 etc:
If you kill 200 whales a year, they will soon disappear.
Hundreds (of), thousands (of) etc are used only when you give a general idea of how many or how much: ‘There were hundreds of stars in the sky.’ ‘They’ve spent thousands (of pounds) on improvements to the house.’
Use and between hundred and the next number. (In American English, and is often omitted, especially in formal styles.)
BrE The club has about a hundred and thirty members.
AmE The club has about a hundred (and) thirty members.