How to say the time in English? Can you do that?
There are different ways to say time, let’s see them.
Digital form: you simply read the numbers.
3:20 three -twenty.
9:15 nine-fifteen
6:43 six forty-three
Classic form you say the minutes first:
3:20 twenty past three.
9:15 fifteen past nine
6:43 seventeen to seven
fI you want to know the time, you can ask:
What time is it? ou What’s the time?
It’s five twenty.
Observe:
Attention:
- One hour is divided into four quarters and two halves.
- Before 30 minutes we say “past” or “after” because some minutes have passed.
- After 30 minutes we say “to” because some minutes are missing for the next hour.
AM or PM?
AM: is a Latin word. it means “Ante meridiem” (before noon), it identifies the period of time between 12:00 am (mid-night) until 11:59 am (11:59 in the morning).
PM: means “Post meridiem” (after noon), it identifies the period of the day between 12:00 pm (mid-day) until 11:59 pm (11:59 of the night).
We use ‘AM’/ ‘PM’ when it is necessary to identify if we refer to the morning time of the night time.
For example, if you have a dentist appointment at 8 o’clock, it is necessary to identify the right time to avoid confusion.
12:00
12 o’clock can be represented in different ways:
- 12 o’clock / 12 am / midnight are equivalent.
- 12 o’clock / 12 pm / midday / noon are equivalent.
O’clock
When to use o’clock?
O’clock is short for “of the clock”, an old expression used to identify the time.
However, we use o’clock only on full hours:
- 7 o’clock
- 11 o’clock
- 2 o’clock
Military time
Sometimes you can see the 24h system used, but it is not common. It is used by the army and the TV.
- 11:00 am eleven hundred hours
- 18:00 eighteen hundred hours
- 22:00 twenty-two hundred hours
Time Preposition AT
Before saying time we use the preposition At.
- The classes start at 7 am.
- My flight leaves at 3 pm.
- I wake up at 5 am every day.
Time to practice!
