Learn how to tell time in Spanish
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How do you ask for the time in Spanish? |
| Cesar: And how do you tell the time? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: During a school break, Sasha Lee asks her classmate, Ana Pérez Bárcenas, for the time. Afraid of being late for her next class, Sasha asks, |
| "What time is it?" |
| Sasha Lee: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Ana Pérez Bárcenas: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Michael: "What time is it?" |
| Ana Pérez Bárcenas: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Michael: "It's a quarter past three." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Knowing how to tell time and ask "What time is it?" is essential in any language that we study. In this lesson, we will learn time-related words and phrases for doing just that in Spanish. |
| In the dialogue, we heard Sasha Lee ask, |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Michael: "What time is it?" |
| You can use this set phrase to ask for the time in any situation. |
| As for answering this question, let's start with how to say, "It's one o'clock": |
| Cesar: Es la una. |
| Michael: This literally means "It's the one," but it is used to mean "It's one o'clock." |
| In this case, it may be easier to learn it as a set phrase for this particular hour, but let's break it down into its components. We start with the verb "to be": |
| Cesar: ser. |
| Michael: When saying "It's one o'clock," this verb is in the third-person singular form, |
| Cesar: es, |
| Michael: meaning "it's." |
| This is followed by the feminine singular definite article, |
| Cesar: la, |
| Michael: meaning "the," |
| which is lastly followed by the feminine number "one," |
| Cesar: una. |
| Michael: Thus, putting everything together, we have, |
| Cesar: Es la una. |
| Michael: "It's one o'clock." |
| Next, to say any time from two o'clock to twelve o'clock, we use a different set of words, which luckily remain the same. Let's see an example: "It's two o'clock." |
| Cesar: Son las dos. |
| Michael: Or, literally, "They are the two." |
| In this case, the verb "to be" in Spanish is used in the third-person plural form, |
| Cesar: son. |
| Michael: This is followed by the feminine plural definite article, |
| Cesar: las, |
| Michael: literally, "the," followed by the hour, or in this case, "two": |
| Cesar: dos. |
| Michael: Altogether, we have, |
| Cesar: Son las dos. |
| Michael: "It's two o'clock." |
| Before moving on, let's note a few things about the definite article that is used before the number. It is feminine because it refers to "the hour," which is a feminine noun in Spanish: |
| Cesar: la hora. |
| Michael: Thus, since one is singular, the article will be in the singular form, |
| Cesar: la, |
| Michael: for one o'clock, and in the plural form, |
| Cesar: las, |
| Michael: for all other hours, for example, "It's five o'clock.": |
| Cesar: Son las cinco. |
| Michael: In addition to what we have learned so far, it may be useful to learn some other time-related expressions, such as "a quarter past." |
| At the beginning of the lesson, we heard the line, "It's a quarter past three." |
| Cesar: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Michael: From here, we can see that for saying "a quarter past" an hour, we should start by saying the hour, and then follow that by |
| Cesar: y cuarto, |
| Michael: which literally means "and a quarter." |
| Similarly, if instead we would like to say "half past" an hour, as in, "It's half past three." |
| Cesar: Son las tres y media. |
| Michael: we again start with the hour, but then add |
| Cesar: y media, |
| Michael: which literally means "and a half." |
| In the last two examples, notice how we told the time after a certain hour by using "and" |
| Cesar: y |
| Michael: followed by the amount of time past the hour. |
| This structure can also be used for any number of minutes past the hour. For example: |
| Cesar: Son las tres y veinticinco. |
| Michael: "It's twenty five past three." |
| Before we wrap up, one more time expression you may want to use is "a quarter to," as in, "It's a quarter to two.": |
| Cesar: Son cuarto para las dos. |
| Michael: So, to say "It's a quarter to" an hour, start with |
| Cesar: Son cuarto para las, |
| Michael: which literally means "It's quarter to the," and then follow that by the hour. |
| Provided it's at least half past the hour, you can also use this structure to say the amount of minutes remaining before a certain hour. For example, "It's five to three." in Spanish is |
| Cesar: Son cinco para las tres. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned how to ask and tell time in Spanish. |
| Let's now look at some examples. First we have |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Michael: "What time is it?" |
| As we've learned, this question is a useful set phrase to ask for the time in any situation. |
| Next we have |
| Cesar: Son las siete. |
| Michael: "It's seven o'clock." |
| Recall that to say any time from two to twelve o'clock, we say the verb "to be" in its third-person plural form, "son," followed by the feminine plural definite article, "las," and then finish off with the number for the hour, which in this case is seven, |
| Cesar: siete. |
| Michael: Our next example is |
| Cesar: Son las dos y diez. |
| Michael: "It's ten past two." |
| Remember that to say it's a number of minutes past a certain hour, we follow the hour with the Spanish word for and, |
| Cesar: y, |
| Michael: followed by the number of minutes, which in this example is ten, |
| Cesar: diez. |
| Our last example is |
| Cesar: Son veinte para las ocho. |
| Michael: "It's twenty to eight." |
| Lastly, provided it's at least half past the hour, recall that for saying it's a number of minutes to a certain hour, we start with |
| Cesar: son |
| Michael: and then use |
| Cesar: para las |
| Michael: between the number of minutes and the hour, which here was twenty, |
| Cesar: veinte, |
| Michael: and eight, |
| Cesar: ocho. Son veinte para las ocho. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Now, let's learn how to specify the period of day when telling time. |
| To say "in the morning," we use |
| Cesar: de la mañana. |
| Michael: So, for example, to say "It's one o'clock in the morning," meaning "It's 1:00 a.m.," we say |
| Cesar: Es la una de la mañana. |
| Michael: To say "in the afternoon," we use |
| Cesar: de la tarde |
| Michael: Thus, to say "It's four in the afternoon," meaning "It's 4:00 p.m.," we say |
| Cesar: Son las cuatro de la tarde. |
| Michael: To say "in the evening," we use |
| Cesar: de la noche. |
| Michael: As an example, to say "It's eight in the evening," meaning "It's 8:00 p.m.," we say |
| Cesar: Son las ocho de la noche. |
| Michael: And lastly, there are two additional phrases that we'd like to share with you: |
| To say "It's noon." or "It's midday." in Spanish, we say |
| Cesar: Es mediodía. |
| Michael: And to say "It's midnight" in Spanish, we say |
| Cesar: Es medianoche. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sample conversation: Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud, and then listen carefully as Cesar models the correct answer. Repeat after him, with the focus on your pronunciation. Are you ready? |
| How do you say, "What time is it?" |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. Remember to focus on your pronunciation. |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora es? |
| Michael: Let's move on to the second sentence. How do you say, "It's a quarter past three." |
| Cesar: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Michael: Did you get it right this time? Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Cesar: Son las tres y cuarto. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: There are other ways to ask for the time in Spanish which utilize the verb "to have," |
| Cesar: tener. |
| Michael: For example, in informal speech, you may hear |
| Cesar: ¿Qué hora tienes? |
| Michael: meaning "What time do you have?" You may also hear |
| Cesar: ¿Tienes la hora? |
| Michael: which means, "Do you have the time?" |
| Finally, in a more formal setting, you may come across |
| Cesar: Disculpe, ¿tiene hora? |
| Cesar: Disculpe, ¿tiene la hora? |
| Michael: meaning "Excuse me, do you have the time?" |
| And that's all there is to it! By reviewing this lesson, along with Spanish numbers, you will be well prepared to ask and tell time in Spanish without any trouble at all! |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: Until next time! |
Comments
Hide