How to tell the time in English | Learn English with Cambridge

There are two common ways of telling the time.

Excuse me, what time is it?

It’s 2:35.

Thanks.

It’s 25 to three.

Thanks.

Hello, hello everyone.

Not sure how to tell the time in English?

Don’t worry.

Today, I’ll be explaining two common ways of telling the time

so you never get confused again.

By the way,

don’t forget to subscribe to the channel.

First, let’s start with the basics.

How do we ask and tell the time?

We can ask, what time is it?

Or, when is the concert?

When is the lesson?

When is the party?

And we give the time by using it is.

It’s nine o’clock.

It’s quarter to two.

It’s half past ten.

Also, in English,

we usually don’t use the 24-hour clock but the 12-hour clock

where AM and PM are used in a formal context.

The minute hand is the long stick on a clock

that points to the minutes.

It goes once around the clock every 60 minutes.

The hour hand is the shortest stick on a clock

that shows the hours.

It goes once around the clock every 12 hours.

AM is the time that goes from 12:00 AM,

that is, midnight, and before 12:00 PM,

that is, noon.

But we can also say in the morning instead of AM,

in a more informal way.

For example, 10 in the morning.

PM, on the other hand,

goes from 12:00 PM, midday or noon,

and before 12:00 AM, midnight.

In a more informal way, we will say in the afternoon,

in the evening, at night.

For example, three o’clock in the afternoon,

six o’clock in the evening, ten o’clock at night.

Finally, remember

that when the minute hand, it’s at 12:00,

we always say it’s o’clock.

But remember,

you can’t say it’s o’clock alone itself in English.

You need to add the number.

It’s five o’clock. It’s nine o’clock.

It’s six o’clock.

The first way of telling the time may already be

very familiar to many of you.

Say the hour first and then the minutes.

For example, 2:15, 10:40, 9:36.

The second way to tell the time is by saying the minutes first

and then the hour.

For example, it’s 25 to three. It’s 18 minutes past four.

It’s one minute to 11.

Wait, what?

Well, let’s have a look at this clock.

First, let’s divide the clock in two.

For the right side,

specifically from one minute to 30,

we use the word past.

So when the minute hand is on the right side of the clock,

you will say minutes past hour.

For example, 3:20 will be 20, minutes,

past three, hour.

20 past three.

And for the left side,

specifically from 31 minutes to 59 minutes,

we use the word to.

So when the minute hand is on the left side of the clock,

you will say minutes to next hour.

Not the current one but next hour.

It means the number

of minutes remaining until the next hour.

For example, 7:40 will be 20,

there are 20 minutes between 40 and 60,

to eight, next hour after seven.

20 to eight.

When the minute hand is at three,

we usually say quarter past.

Quarter past six. Quarter past 11.

And when it is at number nine,

we say it’s quarter to.

Quarter to five. Quarter to nine.

And not 15 past or 15 to.

When the minute hand is at six, we say half past.

It’s half past ten.

It’s half past seven. It’s half past two.

Let’s practise a little bit to see

if you have understood.

It’s at 8:35, or

if your answer was at 25 to nine, it’s correct.

It starts at 10:15 or quarter past ten.

It is at 4:30 in the afternoon, or

half past four in the afternoon.

It leaves at 6:50 in the morning, or

at ten to seven in the morning.

All right, let’s recap what we’ve learned today.

For asking and telling the time,

we can say what time is it or when is the…?

For giving the time, we use it is.

AM and PM are used in formal contexts.

Otherwise, we use in the morning,

in the afternoon,

in the evening and at night.

When the minute hand is at 12, we say it’s the hour o’clock.

When it is at number three, we say it’s quarter past.

And when it is at number nine,

we say it’s quarter to.

Finally, when it is at number six,

we say it’s half past.

The first one is by saying the hour first

and then the minutes.

The second one is by saying the minutes first

and then the hour.

For the right side of the clock,

we use the word past.

And for the left side of the clock,

we use to,

until the next hour, not the current one.

That’s everything for today, guys.

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And please let us know in the comments

if you got the right answers for the exercises.

Bye.