Un cuarto para las siete.

I've just started with Rocket but I've done some Spanish classes at evening school.  We were taught “las siete menos cuatro” rather than “un cuatro para la siete”.  Are both correct?  Or is there an occasion when you would use one rather than the other?  Or is this a difference between European and Latin American Spanish?  Thank you!

As I understand it, both are correct and used. 

We do the same thing in English. “Quarter to 7” vs “Quarter til 7” vs “quarter before 7” vs “six forty-five” vs (I am sure there are more).

You will find that there are many times more than one answer can be correct. RS helps you by giving you hints in the upper right corner of the question phrase. I used to think it was cheating to look at that, but I have come to the conclusion it is not. There are so many correct ways to say things and the hint is just helping you choose the one that matches what they chose.

Thanks Scott, that's super helpful.  

¡Hola!

This is a very interesting question; thanks for sharing!

As you pointed out, this difference is between Latin American Spanish and Castillian Spanish. So yes, both are correct. Both phrases are used in Latin America; however, the former, using menos, is more widely used in Spain.

One key difference between the phrases to be aware of is the conjugation of the verb ser “to be." Namely, when using para las “to” to talk about time to the hour, for example, es un cuarto para las siete, “(it) is a quarter to seven,” you can conjugate ser “to be” as es (third-person singular) or son (third-person plural). However, when using the alternative phrasing, you must always use son unless referring to one o’clock, in which case es is used. For example, es la una menos diez “(it) is ten to one.” Note that the article la “the” or las “the” follows this as well. 

For more information, visit lesson 2.7 Telling the Time.

I hope this makes sense!

¡Hasta luego!

Indy