How to Tell Time in English

Tell time is very important in day-to-day communication, for establishing a meeting with someone, making an appointment, and talking about your routine, among other functions.

In English, there is Regular (12-hour) Time and Military (24-hour) Time.

REGULAR (12-hour) TIME  is used by most people in everyday talk.

O’CLOCK

If you want to express the exact hour, use “o’clock”. For example, “It’s one o’clock” (1:00). Or “It’s four o’clock” (4:00).  You can only say “o’clock” at the exact hour.

If you want to emphasize the exact hour, add the word “sharp“. For example, “It’s eight o’clock sharp” (8:00). Or “You need to be there at five o’clock sharp” (5:00).

PAST and TO

There are 60 minutes in an hour. With minutes 1 – 29, use past (or after) the hour. For example, “It’s ten past three”, or 3:10. Or, “It’s twenty after eight”, 8:20.

With minutes 31 – 59, use to and the next hour. For example, when it’s 10:40, say “It’s twenty to eleven” (Eleven minus twenty minutes). Or when it’s 3:50, we say “It’s ten to four” (Four minus ten minutes). It’s always correct to say “It’s three fifty” (3:50). But many times, you will hear people say “It’s ten to four”.

QUARTER and HALF

Instead of 15 minutes, you can say “a quarter” and instead of 30 minutes, you can say “a half“.

At minute 15, say it’s “a quarter past” or “a quarter after”. So, when it’s 7:15, say it’s “a quarter past seven”.

At minute 45, say it’s “a quarter to” the next hour. For example, at 5:45, say it’s “a quarter to six” (or 15 minutes before 6:00).

At minute 30, say it’s “half past” or “and a half“. So at 9:30, you can say it’s “half past nine” or “nine and a half” (half an hour after 9:00).

You cannot use to with half.

As mentioned before, it’s okay to say “It’s seven fifteen” (7:15), “It’s five forty-five” (5:45) or “It’s three thirty” (3:30). But you will definitely hear people say “It’s quarter past seven”, “It’s a quarter to six” or “It’s half past three”.

AM, PM and IN THE MORNING, IN THE AFTERNOON, AT NIGHT

There are 24 hours in a day. For hours 0 through 12, say “A.M.”. So for hour 7 (in the morning), say “It’s seven A.M.” (7:00 A.M.). For hours 12 to 24, say “P.M.”. So for example, at hour 14, say “It’s two P.M.”

Instead of A.M., you can say “in the morning“. For example, “It’s six o’clock in the morning” or “It’s 6 A.M.“.

Instead of P.M., you can say:

• “in the afternoon” from 12 P.M. until 5 P.M. For example, “It’s three in the afternoon” or “It’s 3 P.M.”
• “in the evening” from 6 P.M. until 8 P.M. For example, “It’s seven in the evening” or “It’s 7 P.M.”
• “at night” from 8 P.M. until 12 A.M. For example, “It’s nine o’clock at night” or “It’s 9 P.M.”

Noon, Midday, Midnight

At hour 12, say it’s “noon”. You also sometimes hear people say “midday”. At hour 24, say it’s “midnight”.

“Noon” is 12:00 P.M. And “midnight” is 12:00 A.M. (The start of a new day or 24 hour cycle.)

QUESTION and ANSWER

How do you ask someone about the time? You say: “What time is it?”

The answer always starts with “It’s“, such as “It’s half past three in the afternoon.”

When you answer, always add A.M., P.M., in the morning, in the afternoon or at night to the time for clarity.

MILITARY TIME exists, but is rarely used in everyday speech.

With this method of counting the hours in the day you start with 00:00 at midnight (12:00 a.m.) and count up from there until 23:59 for 11:59 p.m.

You will also say this differently, so for 23:00, you would say “twenty three o’hundred.” Or, for 15:00 and 15:50 you would say “You need to report to the office at fifteen hundred hours today. After that you can leave at seventeen o’fifty.” Note that you do not say “A.M.”, “P.M.”, “in the morning”, “in the evening” or “at night” for military time.

A quick and fun way to convert military time into regular time or vice-versa is to subtract or add 12.

For example, 17:00 in regular time is 17-12 = 5 P.M.

And 9 P.M. in military time is 9+12 = 21:00.

QUIZ

A. Say the following times in all the possible ways:

1. 3:45 A.M.
2. 6:15 P.M.
3. 8:30 P.M.

B. What is the regular time?

1. 13:00
2. 19:00
3. 22:00

C. How else can you say:

1. 12 P.M.
2. 12 A.M.

ANSWERS

A.

1. It’s three forty-five A.M.; It’s three forty-five in the morning; It’s fifteen (minutes) to 4 A.M.; It’s a quarter to 4 in the morning.
2. It’s six fifteen P.M.; It’s six fifteen in the evening; It’s fifteen minutes past 6 P.M.; It’s a quarter past 6 in the evening.
3. It’s eight thirty P.M.; It’s eight thirty at night; It’s eight and a half P.M.; It’s half past 8 at night.

B.

1. 1 P.M.
2. 7 P.M.
3. 10 P.M.

C.

1. noon or midday
2. midnight

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