¿Qué hora es?

Son las tres

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

Son las nueve – It’s nine (o’clock)

In 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 has to be plural – son. The exception is one hour, where it’s singular – es.

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 the word “hora” to the time, 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, Spanish-speakers use the 12-hour system to tell time. To divide a.m. from p.m. they use these combinations:

de la mañana

de la tarde

de la noche

Son las nueve de la mañana – It’s nine in the morning

Son las tres de la tarde – It’s three in the afternoon

Son las diez de la noche – It’s ten at night

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 inevitably discovering them little by little.