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I think in the following sentence, "alle" should be replaced with "jede":

Diese Busse fahren alle fünfzehn Minuten vom Hauptbahnhof ab.

It means "these buses leave every fifteen minutes from the main railroad station", doesn't it? Are both correct? Do they mean exactly the same?

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1 Answer

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You use alle for "15 minutes" because "minutes" is plural. You would use jede for singulars, like jede halbe Stunde. You could not use them vice-versa.

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Though I think "alle halbe Stunde" is used colloquially. – mosaic Sep 30 '11 at 20:19
IMHO there's almost no difference between "alle halbe Stunde" and "alle dreißig Minuten". And i doubt whether this is colloquial - i can't think of a situation where this phrase would be inappropriate (maybe simply because i can't think of an alternative ;) ). – tohuwawohu Oct 1 '11 at 13:19
"Alle halbe Stunde" sounds wrong to me, I would say "jede halbe Stunde" or "alle halben Stunden". – Phira Oct 3 '11 at 13:52
"alle halbe Stunde" does not sound wrong at all to this native German. But it is col. :-) – Florenz Kley Oct 8 '11 at 14:14

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