LA HORA — Telling Time in Spanish Telling time in Spanish is an important topic, as it is the most common and basic conversation that you can have on the street, in the office, when taking appointments, etc. Before moving to the topic of telling the time, we must know how to ask the time in Spanish. Below are the different and native way of asking the time:- Note:- Also, When asking the time, use: ¿QUÉ HORA ES?Not: ¿Qué tiempo es? Here, hora means time/hour, while tiempo usually refers to time in general or weather, depending on context. Lets talk about the structure of the how to tell time in spanish. There are two way of saying time in spanish which will depend on the hour. 1. About The Hour Hand in Spanish Normally for hour we use the general numbers in Spanish from 1-12 1 uno2 dos3 tres4 cuatro5 cinco6 seis7 siete8 ocho9 nueve10 diez11 once12 doce Now if you want to tell the hour in Spanish, below is the example:- 2. About The Minute Hand in Spanish Now we know how to use the hour in time structure lets see how to use the minutes in Spanish. For the minute hands in 12, 3, 6, 9 and if the minute hand crosses the 30 mins we have a special rules. Rule 1:- If you are adding normal minutes you can simply add Y and the number of the minute. For example- Rule 2:- If the minute hand is on 15 minutes. Use Y Cuarto Here cuatro means quater. Rather then saying 15 minutes, Native use quater. For example- Rule 3:- If the minute hand is on 30 minutes. Use Y MEDIA Here media means half. Rather then saying 30 minutes, Natives use media. For example- Rule 4:- When the minute hand is after 30 minutes: Use MENOS For times after half past, Spanish commonly counts backward from the next hour using menos. Next hour + menos + remaining minutes For example- Rule 5:- When the minute hand is on 45 minutes: Use MENOS CUARTO Here it is the same as Rule 2, since 15 minutes are left from the preceding hour, so it says 15 minus the upcoming hour. For example- Son las ocho menos cuarto. → 7:45 Rule 6:- When the minute hand is on 12 which is O’ clock in english, in spanish we say EN PUNTO for exact hour. For example- So in nutshell, below is the cheatsheet to refer the rules of time when using it with hour- 3. About the Part of day : AM and PM You can specify the part of the day: Examples: Son las ocho de la mañana. → 8:00 AMSon las tres de la tarde. → 3:00 PMSon las nueve de la noche. → 9:00 PM 4. About the “AT” or “A” + time Saying “at” a time: ¿A qué hora…? (At what time…?) Use a (at) followed by la or las. Rule: Practice Time:- So that’s all you need to learn about the time in spanish. Now you know all the concept so let’s test your knowledge through the below exercises:- ANSWERS: Exercise 1:- Exercise 2:- Exercise 3:- Exercise 4:- Exercise 5:- If you like this article please let me know in the comments. Here are some other articles that you might like- Seasons in Spanish (Las estaciones) DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SER AND ESTAR Days Of The Week in Spanish (Los días de la semana) Greetings And Goodbyes In Spanis