time and laughing

Question

Why was vingt-deux heures et demie marked wrong?  Also, I wrote "riait" which you indicated to be wrong but the answer was "riait"!

Céline Pickard · Accepted Answer

Bonjour Patricia,
Christian is correct! In French, "et demie" is used with times above 12:
When the time expressed uses hour numbers above 12 (in the "24-hour clock" -> 13h, 14h...), you use instead quinze, trente, quarante-cinq, probably for pronunciation (and elegance) reasons.

Il est vingt-deux heures et demie trente
Il est dix heures et demie du soir

I also checked the exercise and "riait" is correct. Is it possible that you forgot a space between "riait" and the ellipsis (dot, dot, dot) at the end of the sentence (the English being "everyone was drinking, chatting, laughing ..."), which is what Kwizbot might have highlighted?
I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée !

Christian Huter · Answer

You cannot use “et demie” with hours above 11. You need to use “trente” instead. See https://french.kwiziq.com/revision/grammar/how-to-tell-time-in-french-am-vs-pm or my answer to a similar recent question: https://french.kwiziq.com/questions/view/what-to-use-to-mentione-minutes-above-12. As for “riait”: Without your complete answer it is difficult to know why it was marked as wrong.