Telling Time In Spanish

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¡En horabuena! Spanish language learners will find that telling time in Spanish is quite simple when it is broken down into small bites as it is done in this article.

You will, of course, have to memorize some basic numbers in Spanish, but don’t worry — you will find the list for the entire sixty minutes of the clock amongst these lines.

Telling Time in Spanish – Vocabulary

So let’s start with the basic vocabulary used to learn how to say what time it is in Spanish.

SPANISH	ENGLISH
Hora	Hour
Minuto	Minute
Segundo	Second
Día	Day
Horario	Timetable
Reloj	Clock
Tiempo	Time

Remember that in Spanish, as in French, it is important to know whether a noun is feminine or masculine, as this will inform how to conjugate the verbs.

In the table below you can see the articles that indicate their gender and on the next column to the right how to form their plurals.

This is pretty simple, as you just have to add an ‘s’ to the words that end in a vowel and an ‘es’ to the ones that end in a consonant.

SINGULAR	PLURAL
La	Hora	Las	Horas
El	Minuto	Los	Minutos
El	Segundo	Los	Segundos
El	Día	Los	Días
El	Horario	Los	Horarios
El	Reloj	Los	Reloj
El	Tiempo	Los	Tiempo

Hence, it would be ‘una hora’ and ‘un minuto’, and similarly ‘unas horas’ and ‘unos minutos’.

How to Say What Time It Is in Spanish

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These two phrases are used to ask ‘What time is it?’ in Spanish.

SPANISH	LITERAL TRANSLATION
¿Qué hora es?	What hour is it?
¿Qué horas son?	What hours are they?

The literal translations don’t make sense but the two options are correct. However, the first one (in singular) is considered more appropriate for refined Spanish, therefore advocated by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language (Real Academia de la Lengua Española).

The ‘hour’ (la hora) means ‘a defined moment of the day’ and thus the singular is the best option here.

Nevertheless, is very common to hear ‘¿Qué horas son?’ in many places of Latin America, including Mexico, among less cultured people.

Alternatively, these two phrases are used to ask ‘What’s the time?’ Notice how the formal and informal ‘you’ is always implied:

SPANISH	LITERAL TRANSLATION
¿Qué hora tiene? (Usted)	What hour do you have? Formal ‘you’
¿Qué hora tienes? (Tú)	What hour do you have? Informal ‘you’

‘Usted’ is used for proper occasions such as addressing someone higher in rank or social position, as well as strangers.

‘Tú’ is used for casual occasions such as addressing relatives, friends or colleagues.

How to Tell Time in Spanish

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How to answer back when someone asks ‘what time is it?’ in Spanish? This one is easy!

You always start with ‘son las’ followed by the number.

Example: Son las tres or Son las seis.

• The exception is ‘es la una’ (one o´clock).

• To indicate the minutes you complete with ‘y’ (and) followed by the appropriate number.

Example: 6:10 – Son las seis y diez.

• Alternatively, you can break the hour in half or in quarters.

SPANISH	ENGLISH
Y media	Half past
Y cuarto	Quarter past
Cuarto para	Quarter to

Examples:

1. 4:30: Son las cuatro y media – It is half past four.
2. 8:15: Son las ocho y cuarto – It is quarter past eight.
3. 11:45: Son cuarto para las doce – It is quarter to twelve.

Let´s review how to say the numbers in Spanish:

1	Uno
2	Dos
3	Tres
4	Cuatro
5	Cinco
6	Seis
7	Siete
8	Ocho
9	Nueve
10	Diez
11	Once
12	Doce
13	Trece
14	Catorce
15	Quince
16	Dieciséis
17	Diecisiete
18	Dieciocho
19	Diecinueve
20	Veinte
21	Veintiuno
22	Veintidós
23	Veintitrés
24	Veinticuatro
25	Veinticinco
26	Veintiséis
27	Veintisiete
28	Veintiocho
29	Veintinueve
30	Treinta
31	Treinta y uno
32	Treinta y dos
33	Treinta y tres
34	Treinta y cuatro
35	Treinta y cinco
36	Treinta y seis
37	Treinta y siete
38	Treinta y ocho
39	Treinta y nueve
40	Cuarenta
41	Cuarenta y uno
42	Cuarenta y dos
43	Cuarenta y tres
44	Cuarenta y cuatro
45	Cuarenta y cinco
46	Cuarenta y seis
47	Cuarenta y siete
48	Cuarenta y ocho
49	Cuarenta y nueve
50	Cincuenta
51	Cincuenta y uno
52	Cincuenta y dos
53	Cincuenta y tres
54	Cincuenta y cuatro
55	Cincuenta y cinco
56	Cincuenta y seis
57	Cincuenta y siete
58	Cincuenta y ocho
59	Cincuenta y nueve
60	Sesenta

Periods of the Day in Spanish

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When you are telling the time, you would normally specify if it was the morning, the afternoon or the evening.

SPANISH	ENGLISH
Mañana	Morning
Tarde	Afternoon
Noche	Night

You would do this by completing the phrase with ‘de la’ (of the), because all three words are feminine, followed by each period of the day.

Example: Son las tres de la tarde or Son las tres de la mañana.

Both time systems, 12 hours and 24 hours, are widely used in Spanish speaking countries around the world.

Additionally, please note that the initials ‘a.m.’ and ‘p.m.’ are exactly the same in English and Spanish because they are in Latin.

• a.m. – Ante meridiem – before midday
• p.m. – Post meridiem – after midday

How to say noon and midnight in Spanish

‘Mediodía’ (noon) is considered at 12:00 p.m., marking the end of the morning or the first 12 hours of the day (a half day). When spelled like ‘medio día’ it literally means ‘half a day’ as in “I only work part time” not as in a specific moment of the day. Contrary, ‘medianoche’ (midnight) is considered at 12:00 a.m., marking the end of a full day.

SPANISH	ENGLISH
Mediodía	Noon
Medianoche	Midnight

They are always used in singular. ‘Mediodía’ is masculine and ‘medianoche’ is feminine.

Examples:

1. ¿A qué hora es la fiesta? – At what time is the party?

   La fiesta es al mediodía. – The party is at noon.

• ¿A qué hora llegaste anoche? – At what time did you get in last night?

Llegué a media noche. – I arrived at midnight.

Spanish Words for Types of Clocks

 

Here is a list of the Spanish names for the most common clocks:

SPANISH	ENGLISH
Reloj de arena	Hourglass
Reloj de pared	Wall clock
Reloj de bolsillo	Pocket watch
Reloj despertador	Alarm Clock
Reloj de mano	Wrist watch
Cronómetro	Chronometer
Temporizador	Clock timer
Manecillas del reloj	Clock hand/pointer
Tic tac	Tic toc

As a side note, it is interesting to observe how the onomatopoeia for the clock’s sound changes from English to Spanish.

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Popular Spanish Sayings about Time

SPANISH	ENGLISH
¡Enhorabuena!	Congratulations.
A la hora pico.	At rush hour.
Tarda horas y horas.	Something that takes a very long time.
¿Qué horas son estas?	Don´t you know how late is it?
Irse a buena hora.	To leave at a reasonable or decent time.

Beyond learning how to tell time in Spanish, dive into the basics of speaking the language with our FREE Spanish Survival Crash Course.