How to tell the time in Spanish, lesson 2

Hello everyone and welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish!

Today we continue with the time; one never thinks about it that much, but there's a lot to say on the topic of time, isn't there?

Let's get started! First, how do you ask for the time? I'll give you four ways to ask:

1. ¿Qué hora es? - What time is it? (or What hour is it?)

2. ¿Me puede decir la hora? - Can you tell me the time? (Or 'Can you tell me the hour?')

3. ¿Me puede dar la hora? - Can you give me the time? (Or 'Can you give me the hour?')

4. ¿Tiene la hora? - Do you have the time? (Or 'Do you have the hour?')

The vocabulary here:

¿Qué? - (keh) What?

Decir - (deh-seer) to tell; to say

(La) Hora - (la ho-rah) (the) hour; time

Dar - (dar) to give

Tiene - (tee-eh-neh) a form of the verb 'tener' which means 'to have'. Tiene translates to 'has' or 'have' when referring to another person.

Now I'll explain each one and where you should use it. The first one ¿Qué hora es? is the most common, but it's used when asking a person you know, or when asking yourself the time. Use it in casual settings.

¿Me puede decir la hora? Is more formal, and you use it when you need to ask the time to a person you don't know. You can add the word permiso or disculpe, which both translate to 'excuse me', in order to approach a person you don't know with more respect and humbleness. It becomes Permiso, ¿Me puede decir la hora? / Disculpe, ¿Me puede decir la hora? - Excuse me, can you tell me the time?

¿Me puede dar la hora? Is a variation of the above example. In this case you're asking the person to give you the time, so it's assumed the person has a clock. As in the above example, you can add either the word permiso or disculpe. 

Lastly, ¿Tiene la hora? Is asking if the other person has the time. They will reply whether or not they can tell you the time, and if they can, they will also proceed to tell you the time. This one can be used in any setting, but saying 'tiene' makes it more formal; to make it casual, say 'tienes'. Like in the above examples, you can also add permiso or disculpe for humbleness. Disculpe, ¿Tiene la hora? / Permiso, ¿Tiene la hora?

Now, there are a few ways to say the hour. In the previous lesson I showed you how to say the hour at different times of day (and night). You learned how to say 'son las ocho de la mañana, for example. But there are more ways to say the hour, like for example 'it's a quarter to ten' or 'half past one' or 'It's six o'clock'. Here's how you do it:

(If you haven't read the lessons on how to say the numbers, I recommend you check them out first in order to understand this part of the lesson better: Lesson 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. You should also check out the previous lesson on how to say the time.)

To say the hour 'o'clock', add 'en punto' to the hour:

9:00 - Las nueve en punto

6:00 - Las seis en punto

You can also just say the hour, and leave it there. Like for example 9:00 - Las nueve.

To say the minutes, simple add 'y' and the minutes, to the hour:

8:05 - Las ocho y cinco

8:10 - Las ocho y diez

5:26 - Las cinco y veintiséis

For the quarter of the hour, add 'y cuarto':

7:15 - las siete y cuarto

Of course, you can also say 'las siete y quince'.

For thirty minutes past the hour, say 'y media':

5:30 - Las cinco y media

You can also say 'las cinco y treinta'.

To say it's a quarter to the hour, there are two ways to say it:

Falta un cuarto para las diez - It's a quarter to ten

Son las diez menos cuarto - It's a quarter to ten (literally, 'It's ten minus a quarter')

Now you should be able to tell the time. You can add the time of day to the hour, to be more descriptive, like for example, 'son las ocho y cuarto de la noche'.

Practice saying the hour now, and read the following. I'll give you the answers below:

9:15

6:25

8:00

10:30

11:00

12:02

4:05

3:10

5:45

An additional note about time. In Spanish, we also add 'am' and 'pm' to the morning and afternoon hours, as in English.

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This is it, I hope you have enjoyed this lesson, and that you found it useful! I hope the information is not too much for one post, and that you can understand; making things simple for you is what I'm all about here, so don't doubt in contacting me if you have any doubt. You can contact me on my Facebook Page or my Twitter page. Also, you can leave a comment.

Until next time!

*Answers:

Las nueve y cuarto / Las nueve y quince

Las seis y veinticinco

Las ocho en punto

Las diez y media / Las diez y treinta

Las once en punto / Las once

Las doce y dos

Las cuatro y cinco

Las tres y diez

Las cinco y cuarenta y cinco / Las seis menos cuarto

How to tell the time in Spanish, Lesson 1

Hola! And Welcome to Your Daily Pinch of Spanish. Today we'll take a look at the clock, and learn how to say the hours and different times of day. This is the first lesson on the subject of time.

First of all, the word for clock in Spanish:

Reloj (Reh-lohh) - clock; watch

Now, I'll teach you how to say the different parts of day and night. As always, I've provided a pronunciation guide in parenthesis. For more on how to pronounce Spanish, click here. (*Sorry, this link isn't working for the time being, while I rebuild my blog here.)

La mañana (lah mah-ñah-nah) The morning

El mediodía (ehl-meh-dee-oh-dee-ah) Midday; noon

La tarde (lah tar-deh) The afternoon

La noche (lah-noh-cheh) The night

La medianoche (lah meh-dee-ah-noh-cheh) Midnight

La madrugada (lah mah-droo-gah-dah) Dawn; sunrise

Next, to tell the time, here's how you say it: La (hour) de (time of day).

For every hour you have to say 'las' before, with the exception of one (1) in the clock, midday, and midnight; for these, it's 'la', since they're singular. 'Las' is the plural form of 'la'.

Let's take a good look on how to say it for every time of day, so that you can understand better:

To understand this part of the lesson, you should know how to say the numbers in Spanish. If you haven't read the lessons on numbers, I have five lessons for you here: Lesson 1, Lesson 2, Lesson 3, Lesson 4, and Lesson 5 (*Update: Sorry, my links are not working for now

To say the hours of morning, simply add 'de la mañana' to the hour. The little word 'de' indicates possession, therefore, this translates to 'of the morning'.

Las ocho de la mañana - eight in the morning

Las seis de la mañana - six in the morning

To say 'It's ___ in the morning', include the word 'Son':

Son las siete de la mañana - It's seven in the morning.

For one (1) in the morning it's a little different, since one is singular:

Es la una de la mañana - It's one in the morning.

The word 'es' is the singular form of 'Son', which is plural. They are forms of the verb 'ser', the verb 'to be'.

For midday, simply say 'el mediodía:

You can also say it like this:

Es mediodía - (It's midday) (Midday also uses 'es', since it's a singular word)

Es el mediodía - It's (the) midday

Son las doce del día - It's midday (literally: It's twelve in the day) (In this case you use 'son' because you're adding the number twelve)

As you can see, for this hour, instead of 'de' you say 'del'; the meaning it's the same; 'del' is a variation of 'de', a contraction of 'de el' and it's used instead of saying 'de el', which is incorrect.

For the afternoon, simply add 'de la tarde':

La una de la tarde - one in the afternoon

Es la una de la tarde - It's one in the afternoon

Las dos de la tarde - two in the afternoon

Son las dos de la tarde - It's two in the afternoon

Las cinco de la tarde - Five in the afternoon

Son las cinco de la tarde - It's five in the afternoon

For the night, just add 'de la noche':

Las nueve de la noche - Nine in the night

Son las nueve de la noche - It's nine in the night

Las diez de la noche - Ten in the night

Son las diez de la noche - It's ten in the night

For midnight, it's just like midday. Simply say 'La medianoche', or one of the following:

Es medianoche - It's midnight

Es la medianoche - It's (the) midnight

Son las doce de la noche - It's twelve in the night

Finally, la madrugada. It's a way to refer to the hours after midnight until dawn. Basically the hours from one in the morning until four in the morning. Sometimes I've heard it up until six in the morning. To use it, simply add 'de la madrugada', to the hour:

La una de la madrugada - One on the morning

Las tres de la madrugada - Three in the morning

Son las cuatro de la madrugada - it's four in the morning

You can use both madrugada and mañana for these hours.

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Of course, there is more to say regarding the hours, but this is it for today! There's already a lot of information here, and my goal with this Blog is too keep things simple. I will make a follow up lesson, where I'll teach you how to ask for the time, and some other details about the time in Spanish.

I hope you found this lesson useful and easy to understand. If you have any doubt, don't hesitate in contacting me on my Twitter page or my Facebook page. You can also ask me in the comments, if you like.

Until next time!