|
¿Qué hora es?- Telling time in Spanish
The basic way of telling time in Spanish is use to the singular
form of ser ("to be"), which is es, for one o'clock and the plural form, son, for other times. Minutes
can be stated simply by separating them from the hour using y, the word for "and."
-
Es la una. It is 1:00.
-
Es la una y dos. It is 1:02.
-
Son las dos. It is 2:00.
-
Son las tres. It is 3:00.
-
Son las seis y cinco. It is 6:05.
-
Son las siete y diez. It is 7:10.
-
Son las once y diecinueve. It is 11:19.
To indicate the half hour, use media. Use cuarto to indicate the quarter hours.
-
Es la una y media. It is 1:30.
-
Son las cuatro y media. It is 4:30.
-
Es la una y cuarto. It is 1:15.
It is customary to use menos to tell time during the second half of each hour, stating the number of
minutes until the following hour.
-
Es la una menos diez. It is 12:50. (It is ten until one.)
-
Son las cinco menos cinco. It is 4:55. (It is five until five.)
-
Son las diez menos veinte. It is 9:40. (It is twenty until ten.)
-
Son las ocho menos cuarto. It is 7:45. (It is quarter until eight.)
In most of the Spanish-speaking world, both 12-hour and 24-hour clocks are used, the latter being quite common
in schedules and similar printed materials.
Here are some other time-related expressions that can be useful:
-
Son las tres y cuarto en punto. It's 3:15 exactly.
-
Son las seis y media más o menos. It's about 6:30.
-
Salimos a las nueve. We are leaving at 9:00.
-
Era la una. Eran los dos (tres, cuatro, etc.). It was 1:00. It was 2:00
(3:00, 4:00, etc.).
-
Buenos días. Good day, good morning.
-
Buenas tardes. Good afternoon, good evening (until about 8 p.m.).
-
Buenas noches. Good evening, good night (as a greeting or farewell).
-
¿Qué hora es? What time is it?
-
¿Cuándo ...? When ... ?
http://spanish.about.com
|
