How to Tell the Time in English

Learning about time is an essential skill that you’ll encounter while learning any language. When it comes to beginning to learn time in the English language, it can seem a little overwhelming as it’s more than reading the number on the clock.Whether you’re planning an activity, making restaurant bookings or appointments, or catching trains, planes and buses, knowing how to tell the time in English is a pretty valuable skill to have. There are countless ways to address the concept of time in the English language. And there’s no time like the present to learn how to tell the time.

How to ask what the time is in English

To tell the time in English, we have a couple of options:

1) Say the hour first and then the minutes. (Hour + Minutes)

• 6:25 - It's six twenty-five
• 8:05 - It's eight O-five (the O is said like the letter O)
• 9:11 - It's nine eleven
• 2:34 - It's two thirty-four

2) Say the minutes first and then the hour. (Minutes + PAST / TO + Hour)

For minutes 1-30 we use PAST after the minutes.

For minutes 31-59 we use TO after the minutes.

• 2:35 - It's twenty-five to three
• 11:20 - It's twenty past eleven
• 4:18 - It's eighteen past four
• 8:51 - It's nine to nine
• 2:59 - It's one to three

3. When to Use O’clock

This term means “of the clock,” so we can use it to show that a number refers to a time.

However, you should only use “o’clock” with exact hours:

It is precisely 5 o’clock. ✔

I’m leaving at seven o’clock. ✔

It arrived at 7:34 o’clock. ✘

The gig starts at half past seven o’clock. ✘

4. Past, After, Till, and To

When writing the time as words, use “after,” “past,” and “to” for intervals between hours. You can combine these terms with either numbers or the words “half” and “quarter” depending on the time in question:

• Use after or past for intervals up to half an hour past the hour.
• Use to for any interval after the half hour up to the hour.
• Use half past to indicate 30 minutes past the hour.
• Use quarter past or quarter after for 15 minutes after the hour.
• Use quarter to for 15 minutes up to the hour.

For example, we would use the above accordingly in the following times:

7:05 → Five after seven

7:15 → Quarter past seven

7:30 → Half past seven

How to say what time of day it is in English

In English, there are several common ways to reference the time of day depending on what portion of the day you are in. You’ll find that this can be more casual than saying the actual time itself.

a device for measuring and showing time, usually found in or on a building and not worn by a person:

We have an antique clock on our mantelpiece. clock says The town-hall clock says (= shows that the time is) nine o'clock. clock is fast I think the kitchen clock is fast (= is showing a later time than it should). clock is slow I think the kitchen clock is slow (= is showing a earlier time than it should). clock strikes The clock began to strike twelve. set a clock She set her clock (= put it to the right time) by the time signal on the radio.

Asking for the Time

To ask for the time, we say “What time is it?”. A more polite way of asking the time is “Could you tell me what time it is please?”.

Example: – “What time is it?” – “It’s 6:30.”

Example: – “Could you tell me what time it is please?” – “Of course, it’s 3:45.

When asking for the time of a specific event, we say “What time is/does …?”

Example: – “What time is the break?” – “The break starts at 1:30.”

Example: – “What time does the class end?” – “It ends at 4:20.”

Giving the Time

We use It is or It's to respond to the questions that ask for the time right now.

• It is half past five (5:30).
• It's ten to twelve (11:50)

We use the structure AT + time when giving the time of a specific event.

• The bus arrives at midday (12:00).
• The flight leaves at a quarter to two (1:45).
• The concert begins at ten o'clock. (10:00)

We can also use subject pronouns in these responses.

• It arrives at midday (12:00).
• It leaves at a quarter to two (1:45).
• It begins at ten o'clock. (10:00)

What Do A.M. and P.M. Stand For?

We use a.m. and p.m. to indicate whether it’s morning or afternoon. A.M. stands for ante meridiem, which means before noon, and P.M. stands for post meridiem, which means after noon. From 00:00 until 11:59 we use a.m, and from 12:00 until 23:59 we use p.m. A.m. and p.m. are necessary when using 12 hour time to prevent any confusion. We do not use them with 24 hour time as it already remarks whether it is before or after noon.

Example: “What time do we have to be there?” “You should come at 8 p.m.”

Example: After the party, we came home at 3 a.m and fell asleep immediately.

Telling the Time Examples

Let’s put what we’ve learned into practice. Here you can find how to tell the time in all the ways we learned above.

14:00 = It’s two o’clock. / It’s 2 p.m.

00:00 = It’s twelve o’clock. / It’s 12 a.m. / It’s midnight.

16:47 = It’s forty seven past four.

14:15 = It’s quarter past two.

06:30 = It’s six thirty. / It’s half past six.

03:00 = It’s three o’clock. / It’s 3 a.m.

18:45 = It’s quarter to seven.

09:14 = It’s fourteen past nine.

20:30 = It’s eight thirty p.m. / It’s half past eight.

16:20 = It’s twenty past four.

Asked Questions About Telling The Time

How to say 10:15? Ten fifteen, forty five to eleven and quarter past ten are three ways of saying 10:15.

What is telling the time? Telling the time is the ability to read the clock and correctly identify the time. You can learn how to tell the time in different ways in our article above.

Is it saying or telling the time? Telling the time is the correct phrase.

How to tell the time in English? A common way of telling the time is saying the hour first and the minutes the second. You can find detailed explanations of different ways of telling the time in our article above.