Telling the time in Spanish
Online language lessons with native teachers
Skype teachers
Free trial lesson
Flexible appointments
Telling the time in Spanish
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)
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.
Exercises
How to write the time in Spanish exercise
Practise with a private teacher on Skype!
4.7/5 from 7 reviews
- Private Skype lessons
- Learn any topic
- Flexible appointments
I speak: English, Spanish I teach: Spanish
Hello, Spanish learner! I am Isabel, your Spanish teacher. I am a professional online Spanish teacher for 3 years. I am a native speaker from... Colombia. My lessons are completely in Spanish because I want you to speak as much as possible. During my lessons, we will focus on conversation and pronunciation. But a typical lesson also contains a vocabulary topic and a grammar topic. I will focus on your needs and your mistakes to improve your Spanish as quickly as possible. In the first lesson, we will do a level test to check your current level (CEFR A1, A2, B1, B2, C1) If you would like to improve your Spanish, learn more about the South American culture, gastronomy and traditions, I am your teacher! Or if you just want to talk in Spanish, about any subject you like, I would be happy to meet you online. Send me a message and I will provide you a 30-minute free trial lesson! See you online on Skype. Your Spanish teacher, Isabel Read more
Availability: Monday (7-23h), Tuesday (7-23h), Wednesday (7-23h), Thursday (7-23h), Friday (7-23h), Saturday (7-23h), Sunday (7-23h).
Timezone: Europe/Berlin (GMT+2)
See in your timezone.
12.00€ / h
Response time: 54.15 minutes
I speak: Bosnian, Croatian, English, Italian, Portuguese, International, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish I teach: Bosnian, Croatian, English, Italian, Portuguese, International, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish
Me as a Teacher I am a Serbian native speaker and a language teacher. I have been teaching online for 5 years. I live in Belgrade. I've been... teaching online for 5 years (officially). I love teaching because it's a dynamic and an interesting job. You can teach your students and you can learn from them as well. The happiness and joy of the student + their progresses with their target language = my biggest prize (so my students are the ones who motivate me to work better)and I try to combine: a bit of reading, a bit of writing, a bit of conversation, a bit of grammar and a bit of listening by using different resources. About Me My favorite topics are: 1. Travelling , 2. Foreign languages, 3. TV programs, 4. Films and TV series, 5. Culture, 6. sport, 7. IT, 8. Science My hobbies are: learning foreign languages, horse- riding, reading, travelling, ... I am open-minded, flexible and very positive. If you come up with something interesting to talk about, please, don't hesitate to suggest me and I'll gladly discuss with you about that. I visited: Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia. My Lessons & Teaching Style Firstly, I test the level of the target language... I have two parts: 1) Conversational part (here I check their vocabulary and their fluency + I find out their language goals and their needs) 2) Writing part (with that I focus much more on grammar and spelling) For each part, I take notes (I have my notebook for that). Secondly, I personalize my lessons to their goals and needs. I can cover a lot of topics: business, travelling, culture, etc. My Teaching Material Text Documents Audio Recordings Images and Visuals Video News Articles and Magazines Quizzes Example Test Templates Graphs and Charts Homework Assignments PowerPoint Presentations Read more
Availability: Monday (7-23h), Tuesday (7-23h), Wednesday (7-23h), Thursday (7-23h), Friday (7-23h), Saturday (7-23h), Sunday (7-23h).
Timezone: Europe/Belgrade (GMT+2)
See in your timezone.
12.00€ / h
Response time: less than 2 hours
I speak: German, Spanish, Dutch, English I teach: Spanish, Dutch
Hi, I'm Adriaan. I have been teaching Dutch and Spanish for seven years to students of all levels, from absolute beginners to... students who only need conversation. My students are of all ages, from 9 to 76 years old and from all continents. With each student I create a Google doc in which I put all the grammatical information, exercises and homework after each class. I can help you if you want to learn the language for fun, for work, or to prepare for an exam. Languages are my passion! See you soon! Read more
Availability: Monday (8-13h), Tuesday (8-13h), Wednesday (8-13h), Thursday (8-13h), Friday (8-13h), Saturday (8-13h).
Timezone: Europe/London (GMT+1)
See in your timezone.
25.00€ / h
Response time: less than a few hours