Telling the time in Spanish
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What will you find on this page?
- how to ask the time
- how to say the full hours
- the half hours
- the quarters
- the specific minutes
- the digital clock
Lesson outline
Hide- 1.How do you ask the time in Spanish and how do you answer
- 2.The clock in Spanish
- 2.1.Full Hours
- 2.2.Half hour in Spanish
- 2.3.Quarters in Spanish time
- 2.4.Minutes in Spanish
- 2.5.Digital time
- 3.Example dialogue with English translation
- 4.Example dialogue - formal
- 5.Exercises
- 5.1.How to write the time in Spanish exercise
How do you ask the time in Spanish and how do you answer
If it´s 1 o´clock, we use the expression "Es la una". In any other case, it is made use of "Son las"...
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| ¿Qué hora es? | What time is it? |
| Son las.... | It´s.... |
| Es la una. | It´s one o´clock. |
For example:
- Son las 3. (It's 3 o'clock)
- Son las 6 y 48. (It's 6,48)
- Son las 8 y 30. (It's 8,30)
- Son las 12 menos 5. (It's 5 to 12)
Son las 12 menos 5 minutos. (It's 5 minutes to 12)
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The clock in Spanish
Full Hours
As we've already referenced to it, for telling the full hours, we use the locutions "es la una" and "son las...".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Son las 4. | It's 4 o'clock. |
| Es la una. | It's 1 o'clock. |
Son las 4. (It's 4 o'clock)
Half hour in Spanish
Communicating the half hours happens accompanied by the the constructions: Son las ... y media and es la una y media, where "media" means "half".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Son las 8 y media. | It's half past 8. |
| Es la una y media. | It's half past 1. |
Quarters in Spanish time
Like in English, in Spanish we can use quarters for expressing the hour, where "cuarto" means "quarter".
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Son las 12 y cuarto. | It's a quarter past 12. |
| Son las 7 menos cuarto. | It's a quarter to 7. |
| Es la una y cuarto. | It's a quarter past 1. |
| Es la una menos cuarto. | It's a quarter to 1. |
Son las 12 y cuarto. (It's a quarter past 12)
Minutes in Spanish
In comparison with English, here we say firstly the hour and then the minutes.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Son las 10 y 10. | It's 10 past 10. |
| Son las 5 menos 10. | It's 10 to 5. |
| Es la 1 y 10. | It's 10 past 1. |
| Es la 1 menos 5. | It's 5 to 1. |
Son las 10 y 10 minutos. (It's 10 past 10)
Digital time
As in English, we could say the hour + all of the minutes passing it.
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Son las 7 y 28. | It's 7,28. |
| Es la 1 y 35. | It's 1,35. |
Son las 7 y 28. (It's 7,28)
Example dialogue with English translation
Francisco: ¡Hola!, ¿Qué hora es? Hello! What time is it?
Jorge: Son las 10 y 8. It's 8 past 10.
Example dialogue - formal
Felipe: ¡Hola! Qué hora es, por favor? Hello! What time is it, please?
Alex: Son las 9 en punto. It's 9 sharp.
Felipe: ¡Muchas gracias! Thank you very much!
Now you can practice communicating the hour with the exercises we kindly prepared for you.
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