How To Tell The Time In Spanish (lesson + Audio)

Telling the time in Spanish

Even though everybody has a cellphone these days, there will probably come a moment in your life when you will need to ask someone what the time is.

(Most recently this happened to me after a 13 hour red-eye flight, when my phone battery was dead from playing one too many games of Candy Crush.)

Or there may come a time when an equally disoriented person will ask you the time. So here's how to be both the asker and answerer of time-related questions!

How to ask what the time is

Play¿Qué hora es?What time is it?(Literally "What hour is it?")Play¿Tiene hora?Do you have the time?(Literally "Do you have the hour?")

Important: Even though Play audio "tiempo" means "time" (and, confusingly, "weather"), you never use the word "tiempo" to ask what the time is.

How to say what the time is

This is fairly simple, although there are a couple of little tricks:

PlayEs la unaIt's one'o'clockPlaySon las dosIt's two'o'clockPlaySon las tresIt's three'o'clockPlaySon las cuatroIt's four'o'clockPlaySon las cincoIt's five'o'clockPlaySon las seisIt's six'o'clockPlaySon las sieteIt's seven'o'clockPlaySon las ochoIt's eight'o'clockPlaySon las nueveIt's nine'o'clockPlaySon las diezIt's ten'o'clockPlaySon las onceIt's eleven'o'clockPlaySon las doceIt's twelve'o'clock

You'll see that the verb "ser" ("to be") goes before the time. This will always be "son", except for when you're saying "one'o'clock", when it will be "es".

You'll also see that the feminine article (la/las) goes before the number. It's feminine because it's referring to "la hora". Again, this will always be "las", except in the case of one'o'clock, when it's the singular "la", because it's just one hour

You might also hear:

PlayEs el mediodíaIt's noon / middayPlayEs la medianocheIt's midnight

Is it morning or evening?

In many Spanish-speaking countries, you'll use the 24-hour clock, so you won't need to clarify whether that dentist appointment is at two in the afternoon, or two in the morning.

But in case you do, you'll do it like this:

PlaySon las dos de la mañanaIt's two in the morningPlaySon las dos de la tardeIt's two in the afternoonPlaySon las ocho de la nocheIt's eight in the evening

When does "the night" start?

In most English speaking countries you'd probably start talking about "the night/evening" around 6pm. But in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries, you wouldn't roll out the "de la noche" until around 8pm.

And when it's not exactly on the hour?

Most of the time it won't be exactly 2'o'clock, so here's how to deal with that:

1:40PlayEs la una y cuarentaIt's one forty(Literally "It's one and forty")1:40PlaySon las dos menos veinteIt's twenty minutes to two(Literally "It's two minus twenty")1:45PlayEs la una y cuarenta y cincoIt's one forty-five (Literally "It's one and forty-five")1:45PlaySon las dos menos cuartoIt's a quarter to two(Literally "It's two minus a quarter")2:10PlaySon las dos y diezIt's ten past two(Literally "It's two and ten")2:15PlaySon las dos y cuartoIt's quarter past two(Literally "It's two and a quarter")2:30PlaySon las dos y mediaIt's half past two(Literally "It's two and a half")

Did you see how there are two ways of saying "twenty to two" or "quarter to two"? Just like we can either say "it's one forty" or "it's twenty to two", you can do the same thing in Spanish.

Saying when something will happen

When you want to talk about what time a class is, or what time you'll meet someone, you'd use "at" in English. ("I'll meet you at seven"). In Spanish you'll use "a las..."

PlayTengo mi clase de español a las cincoI have my Spanish class at fivePlay¿Nos encontramos a las siete?Shall we meet at seven?Previous lessonNext lesson