Telling Time in Spanish - Explanation (Basic)

In this video lesson, we'll be learning how to read that clock thing. Oh, yeah. I mean, tell time. Telling time is pretty simple, it involves the verb say or to be and the numbers. She might need to review the lessons involving numbers specifically for this video lesson; the numbers 1 to 59
First off, to ask somebody what time it is in Spanish, you would use the phrase Que hora es? But this question although translates to what time is it is literally asking what hour is it. If we are right on the hour, we can answer the following:
- Es lac una
- Son las dos
- So las tres
- So las cuatro
- Son las cinco
- Son las seis
- Son las siete
- Son las ocho
- Sonlas nueve
- Son las diez
- Son las once
- Son las doce
If you notice, these are all very similar except for one, that is well?. 1 o'clock or it's 1 o'clock. The reason is because it's only 1 o'clock for the rest, we have to make them plural; so it's like saying, it's 1 o'clock, they are 2 o'clock, they are 3 o'clock etc.
For Son las doce, we can also make it more specific just in case and we have Es mediodia, that?s midday or Es medianoche - midnight. Now, if I wanted to add the minutes to these times, all they have to do is use the word E4 and another number for the minutes ? Es la una y diez, so this is it, it's 1 o'clock and 10...10 minutes
-Son las dos y viente
-Son las cuatro y treinta y cinco
-Son las siete y cuarenta
-Son las diez y cincuenta y cinco
So, the minutes are the regular numbers. We have two that could be a little bit different, but for 15 after, we can say y quince and 15 minutes pa amplo. son las cinco y quince, son las nueve y quince, but we could also substitute y quince for y cuarto which means one fourth or quarter instead of sayings son las cinco y quince, I could say son las cinco y cuarto and the same with son las nueve y quince, where I could say son las nueve y cuartoNotice that cuarto is fourth while cuatro is four? make sure you don't get these two confused. Now, if the time is 4:30, we might say son las cuatro y treintaor if it's 11:30, you can say son las once y treinta, but you could also use y media, just like saying and a half, son las cuatro y media, son las once y media, you might also be able to remember y media because it looks kind of like middle, but ?Media? will only be used for 30 minutes past exactly, you couldn't say son las cuatro y media y cinco for 4:35, that doesn't make sense of it like saying it's half and five past four doesn't sound right. Now if needed, I can also add in the morning, afternoon, evening to these times and if you are doing shorthand you could still use p.m. or a.m. like we do in English and the reason that you can do this is because these are from Latin and Spanish is from Latin. Now, to talk about the part of the day, we?ll need to use the following phrases after the time:
-de la madrugada is a phrase for in the early morning, then some would say de la maana
- in the morning, de la tarde
- in the afternoon, de la noche
- in the evening.
Between tarde and noche, there might be some discrepancy depending on the person of the country or if it's dark yet even wherever you are at. Please notice that we only use these phrases: de la madrugada, de la maana, de la tarde, or de la noche when telling time. Otherwise if they're not specifically after the hour and you're using just say in general, in the morning etc. you'll have to use en la madrugada, en la maana, en la noche, en la tarde or por la madrugada, por la manana, por la tarde, or por la noche.
Let's try a couple of examples: Son last res y diecisiete de la madrugada, son las dos de la tarde, son las seis de lamaana, son las once y treinta y cinco de la noche.