Time Telling time is rather easy. You only need to know the numbers up to 59 to be able to tell the time.

Necessary Phrases To start, you will need a few phrases to help you tell time. First off is… Es la una (Only for the one o’clock hour) Son las [x] (x represents whatever number past one o’clock.)

Practiquemos.

What about when it’s not the top of the hour? To tell times past the hour, you simply say what hour it is (ex: Son las tres…), then say “y” meaning “and”, and then whatever minute past the hour it is. Ex: It’s 3:20. Son las tres y veinte. Ex: It’s 12:40. Son las doce y cuarenta.

Practiquemos.

Another way to tell time… If the hour is already half-past (meaning that there are LESS THAN 30 MINUTES remaining in the hour), you can tell time by stating that it is so many minutes until the NEXT hour. We do this in English all the time. Example: If the time were 4:50, you could say… It’s four fifty. OR It’s ten ‘til five. Example: If the time were 9:40, you could say… It’s nine forty OR It’s twenty til ten.

How do I do this in Spanish To do this in Spanish, it’s the same process as I described before, but instead of using “y” (and), you say “menos” meaning “less” or “until”. Ex: It’s two fifty. Son las tres menos diez. Ex: It’s nine forty two. Son las diez menos dieciocho.

Tratemos It’s 5:55. It’s 11: 35 It’s 12:40 It’s 6:50

Practiquemos

More helpful phrases AM = de la mañana It’s 2 AM = Son las dos de la mañana PM = de la tarde OR de la noche It’s 3:10 = Son las tres y diez de la tarde. It’s 9:20= Son las nueve y veinte de la noche.

More helpful phrases It’s X:15 = Son las X y cuarto (cuarto = quarter past the hour); It’s X:30 = Son las X y media (media = half past) It’s X:45 = Son las X menos cuarto (15 minutes UNTIL the next hour. Here X would equal the next hour to come.)

More helpful phrases It’s 12 NOON = Es el mediodía. It’s 12 MIDNIGHT = Es la medianoche.

Practiquemos

Bell Work (Trabajo introductorio) Escribe las horas en español It’s 1:10 PM. It’s 2:15. (There are two ways to tell this time!) It’s 3:25 AM. It’s 4:30. (There are two ways to tell this time!) It’s 5:35. (Give me the long way.) It’s 6:40. (Use the subtraction method.) It’s 7:45. (There are THREE ways to tell this time!) It’s 8:50. (Give me the subtraction method.)