Transcript for:
Learning to Tell Time in Spanish

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 "ser" (to be) and the numbers. So, you might need to review the lessons involving numbers, specifically for this video lesson, the numbers one to fifty-nine. First off, to ask somebody what time it is in Spanish, you would use the phrase: "¿Qué hora es?" But this question, although, translates to "what time is it", is literally asking, "what hour is it?" If we're right on the hour, we could answer the following, "Es la una". "Son las dos". "Son las tres". "Son las cuatro". "Son las cinco". "Son las seis". "Son las siete". "Son las ocho". "Son las nueve". "Son las diez". "Son las once". "Son las doce". If you notice, these are all very similar except for one. That is, well, one o'clock, or it's one o'clock. The reason is because it is only one o'clock. For the rest, we have to make them plural. So it's like saying, it's one o'clock, they are two o'clock, they are three o'clock, etcetera... Or, "Son las doce". We can also make it more specific just in case. And we have "Es mediodía". It's midday. Or, "Es medianoche". Midnight. Now, if I wanted to add the minutes to these times, all that I have to do is use the word "y" for "and", and then a number for the minutes. "Es la una y diez". So as I said, it's one o'clock and ten, ten minutes. "Son las dos y veinte". "Son las cuatro y treinta 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 though. For fifteen after, we can say, "y quince" (and fifteen minutes). Por ejemplo, "Son las cinco y quince". "Son las nueve y quince". But we could also substitute "quince" for the word "cuarto", which means, "one quarter" or "quarter". Instead of saying, "Son las cinco y quince", I could say, "Son las cinco y cuarto". And the same with "Son las nueve y quince". I could say, "Son las nueve y cuarto". Notice that "cuarto" is "fourth", while "cuatro" is "four." Make sure you don't get these too confused. Now, if the time is four-thirty, we might say, "Son las cuatro y treinta". Or, if it's eleven-thirty, we could 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 "media" because it looks kind of like "middle". But "media" will only be used for thirty minutes past, exactly. You couldn't say, "Son las cuatro y media y cinco". for four thirty-five? That doesn't make sense. That'll be like saying, "it's half and five past four". It doesn't sound right. Now if needed, I can also add in the morning, afternoon, evening to these times. And if you're doing shorthand, you could still use PM or AM 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 the phrase for "in the early morning". Then, we would say, "de la mañana" (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 or 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 mañana", "de la tarde" or "de la noche" when telling time. Otherwise, if they're not specifically after the hour, and you're using them just to say in general "in the morning", etc..., then you'll have to use "en la madrugada", "en la mañana", "en la noche", o "en la tarde", or "por la madrugada", "por la mañana", "por la tarde", o "por la noche". Let's try a couple examples. "Son las tres y diecisiete de la madrugada". And again, you might hear "de la mañana" on that one. "Son las dos de la tarde". "Son las seis de la mañana". "Son las once y treinta de la noche". Well, that's it for this video on telling time in Spanish. Let me know if you have any questions or comments below this video. And, don't forget to subscribe to my channel for updates on new Spanish video lessons. And, if you wanted to practice what we talked about in this video, click on this video. Or, if you'd like to see another way we tell time in Spanish in some places after the half past point, click on this video. Gracias por mirar y nos vemos.