Learn Spanish - Telling the Time.
In Spanish we differentiate between singular and plural, considering "one" as singular
and the rest of hours of the clock as plural.
To answer to the question 'what time is it?' in English, we always start by saying:
"It is..."
It is quarter past one. (Es la una y cuarto)
It is five to six. (Son las seis menos cinco)
Spanish is very similar, most of the times we start by saying "son las ..."
Son las dos y cuarto. (It is quarter
past two)
Son las seis menos cinco. (It is five
to six)
We said previously we start most of the times by saying "son las..." because when
we are telling the time related to "one" we will start our sentence by saying: "Es
la una..."
Es la una en punto. (It is one o'clock)
Es la una y cuarto. (It is quarter
past one)
Another difference between English and Spanish when it comes to telling the time
is that in English we first say the minutes, whether they are past or before the
hour, and then the hour, and in Spanish it is the other way round: we first say
the hour and then the minutes.
It is ten to eleven. (Son las once menos diez)
It is half past six. (Son las seis y media)
|
English Time |
Spanish Time |
|
|
1 o'clock |
es la una en punto |
|
|
2 o'clock |
son las dos en punto |
|
|
3 o'clock |
son las tres en punto |
|
|
4 o'clock |
son las cuatro en punto |
|
|
5 o'clock |
son las cinco en punto |
|
|
6 o'clock |
son las seis en punto |
|
|
7 o'clock |
son las siete en punto |
|
|
8 o'clock |
son las ocho en punto |
|
|
9 o'clock |
son las nueve en punto |
|
|
10 o'clock |
son las diez en punto |
|
|
11 o'clock |
son las once en punto |
|
|
12 o'clock |
son las doce en punto |
|
|
Quarter past 1 |
es la una y cuarto |
|
|
Quarter past 2 |
son las dos y cuarto |
|
|
Half past 1 |
es la una y media |
|
|
half past 2 |
son las dos y media |
|
|
Quarter to 1 |
es la una menos cuarto |
|
|
Quarter to 2 |
son las dos menos cuarto |
|
|
10 past 1 |
es la una y diez |
|
|
16 minutes past 1 |
es la una y dieciséis minutos |
|
|
20 past 2 |
son las dos y veinte |
|
|
25 past 3 |
son las tres y veinticinco |
|
|
20 past 3 |
son las tres y veinte |
|
|
20 to 5 |
son las cinco menos veinte |
|
|