Muh.

Fawaz Salammutaqi

IA – Asset Management

205244014

Summary of Telling the Time

Telling the Time

To tell the time means to say what the time is, perhaps after somebody asks the
time.

Asking the time

Here are some phrases you can use when you want to know the time:

 What's the time?

 What time is it?
 Have you got the right time?
 What time do you make it?

Telling the time

To tell someone what the time is, we can say "The time is..." or, more usually,
"It's...".

Here is a typical dialogue:

Question What's the time, please?

:

Answer: It's three o'clock.

The chart below shows you two different ways to tell someone what the time is.

more formal less formal

It's... It's...

3.00 three o'clock three

3.02 just gone three o'clock three oh two

3.03 three minutes past three oh three

three

3.05 five past three three oh five

3.09 nine minutes past three oh nine

three

3.10 ten past three three ten

3.15 a quarter past three three fifteen

3.20 twenty past three three twenty

 more formal less formal

It's... It's...

3.21 twenty-one minutes three twenty-one

past three

3.25 twenty-five past three three twenty-five

3.30 half past three three thirty

Units of Time

We measure time mainly with seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks,

months and years :

 1000 milisecon = 1 second

 60 seconds = 1 minutes
 60 minutes = 1 hour
 24 hours = 1 day
 7 days = I week
 28, 29,30, or 31 days = 1month
 365 or 366 days = 1 year
 12 months = 1 year
 10 years = 1 decade
 100 years = 1 century
 1000 years = 1 millennium
Day and Night

There are 24 hours in a day.The day is divided into day(time) and night(time).

Daytime is from sunrise (this varies, but we can say approximately 6am)
to sunset (we can say approximately 6pm). Night-time is from sunset to sunrise.

Every day starts precisely at midnight. AM (ante-meridiem = before noon)

starts just after midnight. PM (post-meridiem=after noon) starts just after midday.
This means that 12am and 12pm have no meaning.

This diagram shows the cycle of a 24-hour day and the words we use to
describe its parts. The day starts at midnight (at the bottom of the diagram).
Days of the Week

The chart below shows the days of the week in English together with their
normal abbreviations.

day of the week abbreviation

days of the week weekdays Monday Mon. Mo.

(7 days) (5 days)

Tuesday Tue. Tu.

Wednesday Wed. We.

Thursday Thu. Th.

Friday Fri. Fr.

weekend Saturday Sat. Sa.

(2 days)

Sunday Sun. Su.

Notice that days of the week and weekdays and are NOT the same:

 The days of the week are all 7 days from Monday to Sunday.

 But weekdays are only the 5 days from Monday to Friday.
 And the weekend is Saturday and Sunday.

Writing the Date

There are several different ways to write the date in English. They vary from formal
to informal, and there are differences between British and American English. The
following table shows some typical formats.

Forma British: day-month-year American: month-day-year

t

A the Fourteenth of March, 2016 March the Fourteenth, 2016

B 14th March 2016 March 14th, 2016

C 14 March 2016 March 14, 2016

D 14/3/2016 3/14/2016

E 14/3/16 3/14/16

F 14/03/16 03/14/16
 Note :

Which format to use is a question of formality, politeness and personal choice.

Generally, the longer formats, such as B or C, are more polite (since they show more
respect for the reader). Shorter formats, such as D or E, are used in less formal
situations, for example a memo, a letter between friends or an impersonal business
letter. Format F is rather official and is typically seen on an invoice or an official or
technical document. Format A is extremely formal and mainly used on printed items,
for example a wedding invitation. The numerical formats may use a full stop (.) or
hyphen (-) instead of a slash (/), for example: 14.3.2016 or 03-14-16

That another format exists which writes the date numerically in the order
Year-Month-Day, for example: 2016/03/14. This is rare in British or American
English and used mainly in very official or technical documents.

Months

Number Name Abbreviations

1 January Jan J

2 February Feb F

3 March Mar M

4 April Apr A

5 May May M
 Months

Number Name Abbreviations

6 June Jun J

7 July Jul J

8 August Aug A

9 September Sep S

10 October Oct O

11 November Nov N

12 December Dec D

In English, months are correctly written with an initial capital: January, February...

Time Expressions

1. I get up at 6:00 in the morning on weekdays

2. I go to bed around ten in the evening on weeknights.
3. I leave work early in the afternoon on weekends.
4. I get home late at night on Fridays.
5. I stay up until midnight on saturdsays.
6. I exercise before noon on Saturdays
7. I wake up after noon on Sundays.

Grammar Simple Present : Information Question

1. What do you do in your free time ? Meet my friends.

2. Who do you go out with ? A friends.
3. Where does she go ? To the movies.
4. How often does he eat out ? Twice a month.
5. When do they go out ? On the weekends.
 Reference from :
1. Richards, C. Jack, etc. Intervhange Fourth Edition. United Kingdom: University of
Cambridge.
2. McCarthy, Michael, etc. Touchstone. United Kingdom: University of Cambridge.
3. EnglishClub.TimeVocabulary Accessed on 31 th October 2020 from
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/time.htm