Es la una y cuarto: how to ask for and tell the time in Spanish

How to ask for the time in Spanish.

Before we start, remember that in order to tell and understand the time you have to master the numbers from 0 to 59: here you can read more about this topic if you need to review them. That said, how do we ask for the time in Spanish?

The most frequent option is the question:

¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?)

This is the one we use most frequently to ask for the time from a person we know and with whom we are on familiar terms. We don’t use it with strangers, and generally not with people we know but with whom we have a greater interpersonal distance either, for example people we would address as usted and not as tú. In those cases we normally use courtesy formulas. Let’s look at examples.

¿Tiene(s) hora? (Do you have the time?)
¿Me dices/dirías la hora por favor? (Can you/Would you tell me the time please?) In this case, using the conditional instead of the indicative makes the formula more polite.
¿Me puedes/podrías decir qué hora es? (Can you/Could you tell me what time it is?) The same happens in this case with the conditional and the indicative.

If we are going to ask a stranger on the street for the time, for example, we start with a friendly word.

Disculpa, ¿tienes hora? (Excuse me, do you have the time?)
Perdona, ¿me podrías decir qué hora es? (Sorry, could you tell me what time it is?)

Choosing the formula depends on the context, something you come to understand through using the language. If you don’t know which formula is the most suitable for the situation you can use an intermediate formula like “disculpa, ¿tienes hora?” (excuse me, do you have the time?). It is a friendly but relatively neutral expression. Don’t forget that, as I have written in other articles, Spanish is a language of closeness and yes, friendliness can end up being excessive.

How to tell (and understand) the time.

To tell the time we use the verb ser (to be). An important detail you should remember is that la una (one o’clock) is singular and the rest of the hours are plural. Even the 0 hours, which are also plural, as we will see later in the article. Let’s look at examples.

Es la una. (It’s one o’clock.)
Son las dos. (It’s two o’clock.)
Son las tres. (It’s three o’clock.)
Son las doce. (It’s twelve o’clock.)

There are two moments of the day with their own name: es mediodía (it’s noon), which is las doce del día (twelve in the daytime), and es medianoche (it’s midnight), which is las doce de la noche (twelve at night), but using them is optional. It is still important to know them because someone may refer to those hours using these expressions.

To introduce the minutes the formula is simple: hora y minutos (hour and minutes).
Es la una y diez. (It’s ten past one.)
Son las tres y veinte. (It’s twenty past three.)
Son las doce y cinco. (It’s five past twelve.)

We said earlier that mediodía (noon) can be used for las doce del día (twelve in the daytime) and medianoche (midnight) for las doce de la noche (twelve at night). These expressions are not used with minutes, that is, you don’t say es mediodía y diez (it’s noon and ten). To refer to these moments specifying the minutes we have to use the numbers.

There are three very frequently used expressions: en punto (o’clock), y cuarto (quarter past), y media (half past).

Son las tres en punto (It’s three o’clock) = 3:00
Son las seis y cuarto (It’s a quarter past six) = 6:15
Son las diez y media (It’s half past ten) = 10:30

After the thirty minutes of each hour it is frequent, in some cases, to use the expression menos minutos (minus minutes) to express the minutes left until the next hour arrives. This is not used in every case, but normally with round numbers. Let’s look at examples.

12:35: es la una menos veinticinco (it’s twenty-five to one). (There are twenty-five minutes left until one).
2:40: son las tres menos veinte (it’s twenty to three). (There are twenty minutes left until three).
5:45: son las seis menos cuarto (it’s a quarter to six). (There are fifteen minutes left until six. In the particular case of menos cuarto you don’t say “son las seis menos quince” (it’s fifteen to six). If you say it, they will probably understand you, but it doesn’t sound natural).
8:50: son las nueve menos diez (it’s ten to nine). (There are ten minutes left until nine).
11:55: son las doce menos cinco (it’s five to twelve). (There are five minutes left until twelve. Just as when we indicate the minutes that have passed since the exact hour, when we say the minutes left until the next one we can’t use the words mediodía or medianoche).

If you want to give the exact time after thirty minutes of the hour have passed, and the number of minutes left is not one of those listed above, the formula hora menos (hour minus) is not used, but rather hora y (hour and): son las siete y cuarenta y siete (it’s seven forty-seven).

In colloquial language we use a twelve-hour clock. If the context doesn’t provide that information we clarify it with the following expressions:

10:10: son las diez y diez de la mañana (it’s ten ten in the morning if it’s daytime), son las diez y diez de la noche (it’s ten ten at night if it’s nighttime).
03:20: son las tres y veinte de la madrugada (it’s three twenty in the early morning if it’s nighttime), son las tres y veinte de la tarde (si es de día) (it’s three twenty in the afternoon if it’s daytime).

The limits between mañana (morning), tarde (afternoon), noche (night) and madrugada (early morning) are not exact. Broadly speaking we can say that mañana is used from six in the daytime until twelve, from twelve until it gets dark tarde is used, then until twelve at night noche is used, and from twelve at night until five madrugada is used. But this is not exact, it depends on each country and variety of the language. For example, in Uruguay we say las ocho de la noche (eight at night) but, to refer to that same time in Spain it is very frequent to hear las ocho de la tarde (eight in the afternoon). As you may have noticed this is equivalent to the am, pm used in other languages but with slightly fuzzier limits.

In Spanish, in addition, the 24-hour format is used, which is also used in other languages. This format is almost not used in colloquial language, but it is frequent in formal language, in the media, in airports, train stations, etc. In this case from twelve noon onwards we don’t go back to saying la una (one), but las trece (thirteen), and so on. When this format is used, in all cases, we specify the minutes with numbers and without the conjunction y (and): we say son las trece treinta (it’s thirteen thirty) (not y media), son las catorce cuarenta y cinco (it’s fourteen forty-five) (not las quince menos cuarto), son las diecisiete treinta y siete (it’s seventeen thirty-seven).

The particular case of midnight: the 24-hour system starts at las cero horas (zero hours), which is equivalent to medianoche (midnight). It is called cero horas because midnight represents the beginning of the following day and that is what the RAE recommends. That is, the format goes from 0 to 23. However, on many occasions you will hear references to midnight as las veinticuatro horas (twenty-four hours).

Asking and telling what time something happens.

When we want to know the schedule of something we ask a qué hora… (at what time…) followed by a conjugated verb with the event whose schedule we want to know, which is the grammatical subject. The same is valid for indicating the schedule of something: we say a la/las + hora (at + hour). Let’s look at examples.

¿A qué hora empieza la clase? (What time does the class start?)
La clase empieza a la una. (The class starts at one.)

¿A qué hora abre la tienda? (What time does the store open?)
Abre a las nueve. (It opens at nine.)

¿A qué hora almuerzas? (What time do you have lunch?)
Almuerzo a las doce. (I have lunch at twelve.)

Once again we have the same distinction between singular and plural: we say a la una (at one), but a las with the rest of the hours.

To refer to a period of time there are two very frequently used options:

De… a (From… to): la tienda abre de nueve a cinco (the store opens from nine to five).
Desde… hasta (From… until): trabajo desde las ocho hasta las cuatro (I work from eight until four).

Useful vocabulary for talking about the time.

To finish, let’s review some words that will help you every time you talk about time and schedules.

La hora, el minuto, el segundo (the hour, the minute, the second). They are the basic units of time. An hour has sixty minutes and a minute has sixty seconds. Example: La clase dura una hora y quince minutos (The class lasts an hour and fifteen minutes).
El reloj (the clock, the watch). It is the object that tells us the time. It can be a wall clock (reloj de pared), a wristwatch (reloj pulsera) or be on the phone. Example: Mi reloj marca las tres y diez (My watch says ten past three).
El despertador (the alarm clock). It is the clock that rings to wake us up. Example: Pongo el despertador a las siete (I set the alarm for seven).
Analógico y digital (analog and digital). The analog clock has hands (the hour hand and the minute hand). The digital one shows the numbers. Example: Prefiero los relojes analógicos (I prefer analog clocks).
El mediodía y la medianoche (noon and midnight). They are twelve in the daytime and twelve at night. Example: Almuerzo al mediodía (I have lunch at noon).
La mañana, la tarde, la noche y la madrugada (the morning, the afternoon, the night and the early morning). They are the parts of the day. Example: Estudio por la tarde y duermo por la noche (I study in the afternoon and sleep at night).
Media hora y cuarto de hora (half an hour and a quarter of an hour). They are thirty and fifteen minutes. Example: El viaje dura media hora. (The trip lasts half an hour.) / Llego en un cuarto de hora. (I arrive in a quarter of an hour.)
En punto (o’clock). It means exactly at that time, with no minutes more or less. Example: La película empieza a las nueve en punto (The movie starts at nine o’clock).
Puntual (punctual). Said of someone who arrives at the agreed time. Example: Mi profesora siempre es puntual (My teacher is always punctual).
Temprano y tarde (early and late). Temprano is before the normal or expected time, and tarde, after. Example: Hoy me levanté temprano pero llegué tarde (Today I got up early but arrived late).
Watch out for tarde: it is a word with two meanings. It can be the part of the day (por la tarde (in the afternoon)) or the opposite of temprano (llegar tarde (to arrive late)). The context tells you which one it is.
Adelantado y atrasado (fast and slow). We say that a clock is adelantado if it shows a time later than the real one, and atrasado if it shows an earlier one. Example: Mi reloj está cinco minutos adelantado (My watch is five minutes fast).
Ahora, antes y después (now, before and after). They are three very useful words to place something in time. Example: Ahora son las cinco, la reunión es después (Now it’s five, the meeting is later).

We have reached the end of this article. I hope these lines have been useful to you. Here I leave you exercises to practice this very important topic and, as always, thanks for reading!