Telling the time

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
TO PAST

the the
hour hour
We say "past" to talk
We say "to" to talk about
about times from the
times from 31 minutes until
full hour to half past, or
the full hour.
30 minutes past the
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
hour.
TO PAST

The the
next hour
hour
10 past 11
20 to 10

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
 o’clock

5 to 5 past

10 past
10 to

a quarter to a quarter past

20 to 20 past

25 to 25 past
half past

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
Talking about the time:
We use the phrase ‘a clock face’, but we call it the dial of a wrist watch.

On the clock, there are the numbers that represent the time, and there are hands - the
hands of the clock are the big hand (for hours) and the little hand (for minutes). There is
also often a third hand to show the seconds.

In English we only say “o’clock” for the full hour – for example, we say “It's six o'clock”.

When we tell the time, we can say “It’s twenty-five past five” (notice we do not have to say
it’s twenty-five minutes past five), or we can say “It’s five twenty-five”.

We have to say “It’s a quarter past” and “It’s a quarter to”, but we don’t use ‘a’ to tell any
other time.

We can say “It’s 12 o’clock” when we mean the middle of the day, but sometimes we need
to add ‘noon’ or ‘midday’ to show we mean the middle of the day, or ‘midnight’ to show we
mean the middle of the night.

Remember, when we are speaking about the different times of the day we often use: in the
morning, in the afternoon, in the evening, but it’s at night.
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
What time is it?

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
Vocabulary and phrases

Questions – to ask someone what the time is now, we can say:

What is the time, please?

What time is it, please?
Do you know the time, please?
Have you got the time, please?
Could you tell me the time, please?

Answers – tell someone what the time is now, we can say:

The time is 3 o’clock.

The time is 3pm.
It’s 3 o’clock.
It’s just gone 3 o’clock.
It’s just after 3 o’clock.
It’s almost 3 o’clock.
It’s nearly 3 o’clock.

How do you say these sentences in your language?

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com
Notes:

A lesson by englishteacher.valerie@AOL.com