telling the time

the hour TO the hour We say "past" to talk about times from the full hour to half past, or 30 minutes past the hour.. We say "to" to talk about times from 31 minutes until the full hour.

Telling the time

the hour

TO

the

hour

We say "past" to talk about times from the full hour to half past, or 30 minutes past the hour

We say "to" to talk about times from 31 minutes

until the full hour

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com

PAST

the hour

TO

The

next

hour

10 past 11

20 to 10

5 past

10 past

a quarter past

20 past

25 past half past

25 to

20 to

a quarter to

10 to

5 to

Talking about the time:

We use the phrase ‘a clock face’, but we call it the dial of a wrist watch

On the clock, there are the numbers that represent the time, and there are hands - the hands of the clock are the big hand (for hours) and the little hand (for minutes) There is also often a third hand to show the seconds

In English we only say “o’clock” for the full hour – for example, we say “It's six o'clock”

When we tell the time, we can say “It’s five past five” (notice we do not have to say it’s five minutes past five), or we can say “It’s five twenty-five”

We have to say “It’s a quarter past” and “It’s a quarter to”, but we don’t use ‘a’ to tell any other time.

We can say “It’s 12 o’clock” when we mean the middle of the day, but sometimes we need to add ‘noon’ or ‘midday’ to show we mean the middle of the day,

or ‘midnight’ to show we mean the middle of the night

Remember, when we are speaking about the different times of the day we often use: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, but it’s at night.

What time is it?

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com

Vocabulary and phrases

Questions – to ask someone what the time is now, we can say:

What is the time, please?

What time is it, please?

Do you know the time, please?

Have you got the time, please?

Could you tell me the time, please?

Answers – tell someone what the time is now, we can say:

The time is 3 o’clock

The time is 3pm

It’s 3 o’clock

It’s just gone 3 o’clock

It’s just after 3 o’clock

It’s almost 3 o’clock

It’s nearly 3 o’clock

How do you say these sentences in your language?

Notes: