¿Qué hora es? Telling Time in Spanish What time is it?
To ask for the time, you use… ¿Qué hora es? There are 2 ways to respond: Es la… (12:35-1:30) Son las… (For everything else)
Telling Time (:01-:30) Begin with “Son las” or “Es la” State the hour Say “y” Finally, state the minutes Below are some of the exceptions :15 “y cuarto” :30 “y media”
A few examples 3:00Son las tres. 2:05Son las dos y cinco. 8:30Son las ocho y media. 1:25Es la una y veinticinco. 9:15 Son las nueve y cuarto. 1:20Es la una y veinte.
Telling Time (:31-:59) Telling time past the half-way mark requires some subtraction. It is like saying “till” in English. The “formula” is as followed: The following hour – the number of minutes before that hour HUH??????
Breaking it Down 10:50 The following hour is 11 and it is 10 minutes before 11. So, Son las once menos (-) diez 6:35 The following hour is 7 and we have twenty-five minutes before we get there. So, Son las siete menos veinticinco.
More Examples 4:55Son las cinco menos cinco. 10:40Son las once menos veinte. 12:50Es la una menos diez. 2:45Son las tres menos cuarto.
A Little More Simplified…. …y… menosmenos