Learn how to ask the time and use time-related expressions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anna: Hola soy Anna. |
| Eric: Eric here! “Time-related Expressions.” |
| Anna: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask the time and to use time-related expressions. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place in the afternoon at a language school café in Spain. |
| Anna: And it’s between Mioko and Camila. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll be speaking casually. |
| Anna: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Mioko: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Camila: Las cinco de la tarde. |
| Mioko: ¿Volvemos para casa? |
| Camila: Es pronto, aún tenemos una hora de tiempo. |
| Eric: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Mioko: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Camila: Las cinco de la tarde. |
| Mioko: ¿Volvemos para casa? |
| Camila: Es pronto, aún tenemos una hora de tiempo. |
| Eric: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Mioko: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Mioko: What time is it? |
| Camila: Las cinco de la tarde. |
| Camila: It's five p.m. |
| Mioko: ¿Volvemos para casa? |
| Mioko: Should we go back home? |
| Camila: Es pronto, aún tenemos una hora de tiempo. |
| Camila: It's still early. We have one more hour. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Anna: In Spain, as well as in Europe, there has been a "television content regulator code" in place since 2000 to protect underage viewers from seeing too much violence, sex, and drug content on television. |
| Eric: That's right. That time is between seven a.m. and ten p.m. and it’s even more heavily regulated from seven a.m. to nine a.m. and five p.m. to nine p.m. This is because underage people watch television most often then. |
| Anna: In Spain, we call this time Horario Infantil, which we translate as "children's time." The rules for this time period are things like "It’s prohibited to show images of underage persons smoking, taking drugs, having sex, or drinking alcohol." |
| Eric: That sounds like a good law to have in place. Now, Let's take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Anna: hora |
| Eric: hour, time |
| Anna: hora [slowly] |
| Anna: hora |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: volver |
| Eric: to return, to come back |
| Anna: volver |
| Anna: volver |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: pronto |
| Eric: quick, fast, soon, early |
| Anna: pronto [slowly] |
| Anna: pronto |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: tener |
| Eric: to have |
| Anna: tener [slowly] |
| Anna: tener |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: más |
| Eric: more, plus |
| Anna: más [slowly] |
| Anna: más |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: de la tarde |
| Eric: p.m. |
| Anna: de la tarde [slowly] |
| Anna: de la tarde |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: de la mañana |
| Eric: a.m. |
| Anna: de la mañana [slowly] |
| Anna: de la mañana |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Anna: las cinco |
| Eric: five o'clock |
| Anna: las cinco [slowly] |
| Anna: las cinco |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Anna: The first word we'll look at is hora. |
| Eric: This word means "hour," and it's used in most of the same ways as the English translation. |
| Anna: However, in Spanish, we can also use hora to express the exact moment of doing something. In this case, we would translate it as "time." |
| Eric: Could you give us an example? |
| Anna: You could say something like, Es hora de irnos, which means, "It's time to go." |
| Eric: The next word we'll look at is... |
| Anna: Más. Más means "more" and it’s used in most of the same ways as the English translation. |
| Eric: This word indicates that you have more of something or that you have enough of something. |
| Anna: For example, you could say, Tenemos una hora más, which means "We have one more hour." |
| Eric: Next, we'll look at how to say "a.m." in Spanish. |
| Anna: The Spanish term is de la mañana. De la mañana means "in the morning." However, while in English we use "a.m." from midnight until just before noon, in Spanish we use de la mañana for the time after the sun has risen which is about five or six am. |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: Sure, you could say something like, Son las 2 de la madrugada, which means "It's two a.m." or Son las 6 de la mañana, which means "It's six a.m." |
| Eric: The last phrase we'll look at is... |
| Anna: De la tarde. De la tarde is a phrase we use in Spanish that means "p.m." |
| Eric: The translation would be "in the afternoon" or "in the evening." This phrase is also divided into two versions. |
| Anna: That's right. We normally use de la tarde from twelve p.m. until seven p.m., while from eight p.m. until eleven fifty-nine p.m., it's more normal to say de la noche. |
| Eric:Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: Sure. You could say, Son las nueve de la noche, which means "It's nine p.m." Or Son las dos de la tarde, which means, "It's two p.m." |
| Eric: Okay, now on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use time-related expressions. |
| Anna: In the dialogue, we heard the phrase, ¿Qué hora es? |
| Eric: Which we translated as, "What time is it?" |
| Anna: To say what time it is in Spanish, as in English, we use the verb "to be," ser. For example, you could say something like Es la una, which means "It's one o'clock." |
| Eric:Then, to say the hours, the structure of the sentence is the verb, plus a definite article, plus a cardinal number, plus whatever else. Listeners, we highly recommend a review of cardinal numbers and the use of definite articles so that you can use the time expressions properly. |
| Anna: That's right. So, we'll use two forms of the verb ser —es and son. Es is used with singular numbers, such as, Es la una, which means, "It's one o'clock." |
| Eric: Well, I guess one is the only singular number. What do we use with all the other numbers? |
| Anna: (haha) Well, all the other numbers use son. So a sentence with son would be, Son las 2 de la tarde, which means, "It's two p.m." |
| Eric: Okay so, those are the basics. Now let's look at using minutes to say what hour and what minute it is. |
| Anna: Okay, so to do that, we just need to add the minutes using the cardinal numbers. One example sentence would be, Son las diez y diez, which means "It's ten o’clock ten minutes," or "It's 10:10." |
| Eric: So how would I say, "It's 3:25"? |
| Anna: Son las tres y veinticinco. Literally, you say the hour, then the word y which means "and," then you say the minutes. |
| Eric: Now, in English we can say things like "quarter past twelve." Can you do that in Spanish? |
| Anna: Yes, you can. When it is any hour and fifteen minutes in Spain, we say the hour and then y cuarto. So, "a quarter past twelve" would be, Las doce y cuarto. To say, "a quarter to twelve" you'd say las diez menos cuarto. |
| Eric: And how do you say that it's thirty minutes to any hour? |
| Anna: In Spain, we say y media which means "and a half." So, to say "half past ten" you would say las diez y media. or you could say 8:30 as Las ocho y media which means "half past eight." |
| HOMEWORK |
| Eric: Okay, now it’s time for the homework section- |
| Anna: The answer to the previous tarea is: |
| ¿Cuántos dulces tienes en tu mano? |
| ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? |
| ¿Quién es él? |
| Eric: And this time, we will ask you to identify the incorrect sentence. |
| Anna: 1) Son la una y media. |
| 2) Son las tres de la tarde. |
| 3) Son las doce y cuarto de la noche. |
Outro |
| Eric: Well that just about does it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Anna: ¡Hasta luego! |
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