Telling the time

A la sessió d'avui hem parlat de com diem les hores en anglès.

What time is it?

The way English people say the time is really similar to  the way Spanish people do.

When the hour hand is in the right part of the watch, we express the minutes that pass of the hour, while in the left part we express the minutes left for the next hour.

We could say that when in Spanish we say "y ", in English we say "past" and when in Spanish we say "menos" in English we say "to".

Now, we only have to change the order of the minutes and the hours. In Spanish we say first the number that represents the hour and then "menos" or " y" and then the number of minutes. Whereas in English we say first the number of minutes, then "to" or "pass" and finally the number that represents the hour. Let's see some examples:

Son las tres y diez >>>>> It's ten past three

Són las cuatro menos cinco >>>>> It's five to four

Son las dos y media >>>>>>> It's half past two

Son las diez menos cuarto >>>>>>> It's (a) quarter to ten

The exception to this "rule" are o'clock times. In this case we say first the hour and then "o'clock"

Son las seis en punto >>>>>>>> It's six o'clock

Here you have a video where telling the time is explained in Spanish.



Per consolidar aquest tema hem fet els exercicis 1 i 2 de les pàgines 30 i 31 del llibre.e.

 Extra exercise to practise:

Telling the time vocabulary (printable)