I think in the following sentence, alle should be replaced with jede:
Diese Busse fahren alle fünfzehn Minuten vom Hauptbahnhof ab.
It means that the buses leave every fifteen minutes, doesn't it? Are both correct? Do they mean exactly the same?
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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1IMHO 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
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"Alle halbe Stunde" sounds wrong to me, I would say "jede halbe Stunde" or "alle halben Stunden". – Phira Oct 3 '11 at 13:52
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2"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
I think it is something like a fixed term.
dwds says
alle bezeichnet den wiederkehrenden Wechsel; immer wieder nach
alle halbe(n), alle (drei) Stunden
mitteldeutsch aller
aller fünf Minuten, zwei Jahre, drei Schritt
