Clocks and watches have both a big hand to tell the minutes and a little hand to tell the hour. Look at the picture below. The hour hand is pointing to the 1, and the minute hand is pointing to the 12 (or 0 minutes). It is exactly one o’clock.
Another way to write one o’clock is 1:00. The symbol : is called a colon. It separates the hours from the minutes. The number on the left side of the colon tells the hour and the number on the right side tells the minutes.
To tell the time, you look at the hour hand first and then the minute hand.
In the picture above, the hour hand is pointing to the number 1, and the minute hand is pointing to the number 15 (look at the outside of the clock), so it is one-fifteen, or 1:15. You can also use the red hour marks to count the minutes by fives: five, ten, fifteen.
Notice that the hour hand is not pointing exactly at the 1, but has moved a little to the 2. As the minute hand moves all the way around the clock, the hour hand moves from one hour to the next. You will be using a program that shows you how the two hands move as we just described.
Most clocks only show the hour numbers. Some have no numbers at all. From now on, our examples will only show the hour numbers. The program that you will be practicing with has no numbers. You just need to remember where they are. If you forget, go back and look at the picture at the top of this page.
There are two types of clocks:
- A clock with hands, called an analog clock
- A clock with numbers only, called a digital clock
In this lesson you are learning to tell time on an analog clock. A digital clock tells you both the hour and the minutes using numbers, such as 11:35.
What time does this clock show?
In this picture, you can see that the hour hand is pointing a little bit after the 2. The minute hand is pointing to the 4, so you know it is 20 minutes past the hour. Remember that you can count the minutes by 5’s using the hour marks. The time on this clock is 2:20, or two-twenty.
Different Ways to Say the Time
You can divide an hour, which is 60 minutes long, into four parts. The parts are divided by the 0, 15, 30, and 45 minute marks as shown in the picture below. Each of the four parts are called quarters. In the table below, you will learn some ways to say the time using the word “quarter”.
| o’clock | ||
| quarter to | quarter past | |
| half past |
When the number of minutes is greater than 30, instead of saying the number of minutes after the hour, you can say the number of minutes before the next hour, or the number of minutes to the hour.
The following table shows different ways to say the time, including the word “quarter” and the word “to”.
| Time | Ways to Say the Time |
| 4:00 | Four o’clock |
| 2:15 | Two-fifteen Quarter past two |
| 6:30 | Six-thirty Half past six |
| 2:45 | Two-forty-five Quarter to three |
| 7:50 | Seven-fifty Ten to eight |
| 8:11 | Eight-eleven Eleven minutes past eight |
| 11:48 | Eleven-forty-eight Twelve minutes to twelve |
| 12:00 | Twelve o’clock Noon (middle of the day) Midnight (middle of the night) |
Sometimes the minute hand will point between two hour marks. You can count by 5’s up to the hour mark before the minute hand, then count the minute marks up to where the minute hand is pointing. For example, look at this clock:
You count 5-10-15-20. Then count the minute marks: 21-22-23. The time is seven-twenty-three, or 7:23.
What’s the Time in English? (additional explanation)
Explanation
There are two common ways of telling the time.
Formal but easier way
Say the hours first and then the minutes.
Example: 7:45 – seven forty-five
For minutes 01 through 09, you can pronounce the ‘0′ as oh.
Example: 11:06 – eleven (oh) six
More popular way
Say the minutes first and then the hours. Use past and the preceding hour for minutes 01 through 30. Use to and the forthcoming hour for minutes 31 through 59, but .
Example: 7.15 – fifteen minutes past seven
Example: 7.45 – fifteen minutes to eight
Another possibility of saying ‘15 minutes past’ is: a quarter past
Another possibility of saying ‘15 minutes to’ is: a quarter to
Another possibility of saying ‘30 minutes past’ is: half past
Example: 5:30 – half past five
Note
Use o’clock only at the full hour.
Example: 7:00 – seven o’clock (but 7:10 – ten past seven)
In English ordinary speech, the twelve-hour clock is used.Timetables usually use the twenty-four-hour clock. In spoken English, the twenty-four-hour clock is, however, only used in official announcements, but not in ordinary speech.
Beispiel: 17:20 – twenty past five
For times around midnight or midday you can use the expressions midnight or midday / noon instead of the number 12.
Beispiel: 00:00 – midnight
Beispiel: 12:00 – midday or noon
To make clear (where necessary) whether you mean a time before 12 o’clock noon or after, you can use in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, at night. Use in the morning before 12 o’clock noon, after 12 o’clock noon use in the afternoon. When to change from afternoon to evening, from evening to night and from night to morning depends on your sense of time.
Example: 3:15 – a quarter past three in the morning OR a quarter past three at night
More formal expressions to indicate whether a time is before noon or after are a.m. (also: am – ante meridiem, before noon) and p.m. (also: pm – post meridian, after noon). Use these expression only with the formal way of telling the time.
Example: 3:15 – three fifteen a.m.
It is not usual to use a.m. and p.m. with past/to.
Example: 3:15 – fifteen minutes past three OR a quarter past three
American English
Beside past Americans often use after.
Example: 06:10 – ten past/after six
But: in time expressions with half past it is not usual to replace past by after.
Beside to Americans often use before, of or till.
Example: 05:50 – ten to/before/of/till six
