You are here: Home » Free Lessons » Vocabulary Lessons » Telling The Time

Telling The Time

What is time?

Time is how we measure life. We use seconds, minutes, days and years and other measurements.

How do I ask for the time in English?

Some of the most common phrases to use to ask for the time in English are:

What time is it?
What’s the time?
Do you know what time it is?
Do you have the time?
Could you tell me the time please? (very polite)

How do I answer 'What time is it' in English?

Telling the time in English is not difficult. It’s very easy.

The easiest way to tell the time is to use this formula:

(1) It’s + (2) hour hand + (3) minute hand.

It's

One of the most common ways to answer ‘what’s the time?’ is to start by saying:

It’s …

Hour hand and minute hand

To tell the time, we first need to look at the hands.

The big hand on the clock tells us how many minutes.

The small hand tells us the hour.

Minute hand on 12

If the minute hand is on 12, we tell the time like this.

It’s + hour + o’clock / am/pm

(Pm talks about the afternoon, evening and night. Am talks about the morning.)

In the above picture, the hour hand is pointing at 3.

So the time is 3 o’clock.

Or we could say 3am/3pm.

Minute hand not on 12

What about if the minute hand is not on 12?

If the minute hand is not on 12, we tell the time like this.

It’s + hour + minute (+ pm / am)

When the minute hand points at 1, it means 5 minutes.

2 – 10 minutes

3 – 15 minutes

4 – 20 minutes

5 – 25 minutes

6 – 30 minutes

7 – 35 minutes

8 – 40 minutes

9 – 45 minutes

10 – 50 minutes

11 – 55 minutes

What time is it in the above picture?

The hour hand is pointing at 4.

The minute hand is pointing at 8 which means 40 minutes.

So we can say:

It’s four forty.

That’s it! Easy, right!?

Yes there are other ways we can tell the time but we will look at them in another lesson.

How do we say 4:01? 6:07? 10:03?

When we have a 0 in the minutes, we don’t say ‘it’s four zero one.’

We say: ‘it’s four oh one.’

‘It’s six oh seven.’

‘It’s ten oh three.’

When we have a zero in the minutes, we normally say oh, not zero.

More lessons for you

Telling The Time

Intermediate Reading #2 – Soccer

Present Perfect Grammar

Colons

Want weekly lessons?

Enter your email below and you will get 1-2 English lessons sent to your inbox every week. We may also occasionally email you updates and discounts for our products.

See our Privacy Policy here. Unsubscribe anytime.

Want to improve your English?

Join thousands of other learners and get free English lessons, tips & tricks, strategies, news and updates!

See our Privacy Policy here. Unsubscribe anytime.

JOIN THE

English Understood Academy

Audible free trial tablet and mobile