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Elle arrive à sept heures et demie.

Elle arrive à sept heures et demie.
She arrives at half past seven.
From Lesson 40:Telling time (il est... heure)·French

Questions & Answers about Elle arrive à sept heures et demie.

The lesson is about Il est.... Why does this sentence use à instead?
Il est sept heures means "It is seven o'clock." When you want to say that an action happens at a certain time, you use the preposition à. So, Elle arrive à sept heures translates to "She arrives at seven o'clock."
Can I just say Elle arrive à sept like we say "She arrives at seven" in English?
No, in French you must always include the word heure or heures when telling time. You are literally saying "She arrives at seven hours."
How does et demie translate to "half past"?
The phrase et demie literally means "and a half." Instead of saying "half past seven," French speakers say "seven hours and a half" (sept heures et demie).
Why is there an 'e' at the end of demie?
In French, describing words have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Demie (half) is describing heure (hour), which is a feminine word. Because it is feminine, we add an 'e' to the end.

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