### Step 1: English Answer
As an expert in timekeeping and chronometry, I can tell you that understanding how to read and express time in English can be quite straightforward once you grasp the basic principles. When it comes to the question, "What time is a quarter to ten?", we're dealing with a common way of expressing time that involves fractions of an hour.
In English, the time is often communicated in terms of hours and minutes. When the minute hand is on the 12 and the hour hand is pointing to a number, it's exactly on the hour. For instance, when the hour hand is on the 3 and the minute hand is on the 12, it's 3 o'clock. If the minute hand moves past the 12, we say that it's past the hour. For example, at 5 minutes past 1, the minute hand is just past the 12 and the hour hand is almost on the 1, so we say "Five past one" or "One-oh-five".
Now, when we talk about a quarter to ten, we're referring to a time that is 15 minutes before the next hour, which in this case is 10 o'clock. The term "quarter" is used to denote 15 minutes, which is a quarter of an hour. Therefore, a quarter to ten means that there are 15 minutes left until it is ten o'clock. To express this in terms of hours and minutes, we would say that the time is 9:45 (or "nine forty-five" in the spoken form).
The table you've provided gives a good overview of how time is expressed in English. For example, at 1:00, it's simply "One o'clock". At 1:05, it's "Five past one", and we can also say "One-oh-five". At 1:10, it's "Ten past one", and we might say "One-ten". At 1:15, it's "Quarter past one", and we say "One-fifteen". The pattern continues as the minutes increase past the quarter-hour mark, and we use terms like "twenty past", "twenty-five past", and so on, until we reach the half-hour mark, which is simply "half past".
In summary, when someone asks for the time "a quarter to ten", they're asking for the time that is 15 minutes before ten o'clock. The correct way to express this in standard time format is 9:45.

### Step 2: Divider
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Hours and minutesTimeSayor Say1:00One o'clock1:05Five past oneOne-oh-five1:10Ten past oneOne-ten1:15Quarter past oneOne-fifteen9 more rowsread more >>