¿Qué hora es?

Son las tres

Hola, ¿qué hora es? – Hi, what time is it?

Son las nueve – It’s nine (o’clock)

I this lesson you are going to learn how to tell time in Spanish. It’s quite simple. You just need to remember Spanish numbers.

To start with, learn the basic question:

¿Qué hora es? – What time is it?

una hora – an hour

A typical answer can be:

Son las ocho – It’s eight

In the answers the verb ser should be used. And it always has the plural form “son”. The exception is one hour, where it’s singular.

1:00 Es la una

2:00 Son las dos

3:00 Son las tres

4:00 Son las cuatro

Notice, that in every sentence the determined article la or las is used.

Try it yourself:

What time is it?

It’s five

It’s eleven

It’s ten

You can also add “hora”, but for short, it’s usually omitted.

Son las diez horas = Son las diez

If you want to say “It’s five o’clock sharp”, add “en punto”.

Son las seis en punto – It’s six o’clock sharp

Let’s have a look at some examples where the minute hand is pointing to an exact minute.

10:05 – Son las diez y cinco

7:10 – Son las siete y diez

For a quarter the word “cuarto” is used.

5:15 – Son las cinco y cuarto

“Media” stands for half (an hour).

7:30 – Son las siete y media

Try it yourself:

8:20

11:07

12:25

9:05

6:30

3:15

Don’t confuse cuatro and cuarto. Otherwise somebody will come eleven minutes earlier or later.

Now let’s jump to the left side of the clock. That’s where the word “menos” instead of “y” should be used.

7:50 – Son las ocho menos diez

Literally this means “It’s eight minus ten. Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

¿Qué hora es?

Son las nueve menos cinco (8:55)

Try it yourself:

10:40

4:45

11:53

Normally, In Spanish the 12-hour system is used to tell time. To divide a.m. from p.m. use these combinations:

de la mañana

de la tarde

de la noche

Son las nueve de la mañana – It’s nine a.m.

Son las tres de la tarde – It’s three p.m.

Son las diez de la noche – It’s ten p.m.

However, it would be also possible to say:

Son las quince – 15:00 (3 p.m.)

Son las veintidós – 22:00 (10 p.m.)

Try it yourself:

9:00

16:00

17:30

20:45

22:10

This is basically it. Now you know how to tell time in Spanish. There are some other expressions and variations that can be used in this situation, and you will be obviously discovering them little by little.