How to Tell Time in Spanish (Plus Vocabulary and a Quiz)

Even though it’s a very useful skill and excellent practice of numbers, learning how to tell time (la hora) in Spanish is sometimes skipped by self-learners and classes.

In this post, we’ll teach you many time-related phrases and vocabulary to communicate effectively when you’re llegando tarde (running late) or de camino (on the way). 

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

How to Ask for the Time in Spanish

There are three main ways to ask for the time in Spanish:

¿Qué hora es? (What time is it?)

¿Qué horas son? (What time is it?)

¿Tiene(s) la hora? (Do you have the time?)

Note that ¿Qué hora es? is the most common way you’ll hear or use.

How to Tell Time on the Hour in Spanish

Then to tell someone what the time is, you’ll need to follow this formula:

Es/son + la/las + [hour].

So if the time just happens to be on the hour, you might say:

And if you need to review your numbers, you can do that here. 

Now let’s take a deeper look at the components of this formula:

• Use ser, not estar. Though it may be counterintuitive, we always use ser to tell the time, not estar. Apparently, time is a permanent entity and therefore doesn’t want to be described using estar, which suggests temporariness.
• Singular versus plural. We actually only use es for one o’clock and all times between 1:00 and 1:59: this is because one hour is singular. Use son for two o’clock and beyond.
• Time is feminine. That’s why we say, Son las seis (It’s six o’clock), for example. Because time is feminine, you should always use las and la to describe time, never el or los.

How to Tell the Exact Time in Spanish

To say any time between the hour and half past, this formula is the most common:

Es/son + [the hour] + [number of minutes past the hour]

You can also tell the time with different prepositions in the following formulas, however they are slightly less common:

Es/son + [the hour] + y + [number of minutes past the hour]

Es/son + [the hour] + con + [number of minutes past the hour]

For example:

How to Tell Time Past and to the Hour in Spanish 

To say that it is half past the hour, use this formula:

Es/son + [the hour] + y media/treinta.

Notice that it’s not y medio since hora is feminine.

To say that it’s quarter past the hour, use this:

Es/son + [the hour] + y cuarto/quince.

Note that cuarto does end in o because it means “quarter” and the word is masculine.

Once you get past the 30-minute mark, you need to use menos or para and refer to the hour that is approaching, just like when you use “quarter to” in English:

Es/son + [the hour approaching] + menos cuarto.

Es/son + cuarto + para + [the hour approaching].

Let’s look at some examples:

Spanish Time Expressions and Vocabulary

Besides the numbers zero to 60 and the sentence structures I just went over, there are some more expressions and vocabulary that’ll help you talk about time in Spanish. Here are a few of them:

Time Telling Quiz

Write these times in Spanish:

1. 1:05

2. 3:55

3. 11:15

4. 9:30

5. 9:00

6. 5:45

7. 6:50

Answer Key:

1. Es la una cinco.

2. Son las tres cincuenta y cinco. / Son las cuatro menos cinco. / Son cinco para las cuatro.

3. Son las once y cuarto/quince.

4. Son las nueve y media/treinta.

5. Son las nueve.

6. Son las cinco cuarenta y cinco. / Son las seis menos cuarto. / Son cuarto para las seis.

7. Son las seis cincuenta. / Son las siete menos diez. / Son diez para las siete.

How to Practice Telling Time in Spanish

• Use online games. You can test yourself using this online game—or with this one or this one, which are time-telling games of various levels with reviews to test your newly learned skills.
• Ask your Spanish-speaking friends to test you. To practice beforehand, try listening to Spanish podcasts or watching some Spanish videos. The language learning program FluentU actually has authentic media clips—covering everything from telenovelas (soap operas) to news reports—that show you how native speakers naturally communicate time (among other things).

  FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

  You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

  P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month)

   

  Try FluentU for FREE!

• Integrate time telling into your regular life. Every time you look at your watch, phone or tablet in your normal English-speaking life, you could say the time aloud in Spanish. You could even set up an alert on your phone to remind you to do this, perhaps asking “¿Qué hora es?” until you get into the habit of doing this regularly. A more low-tech version of this would be to put a sticky note next to your alarm clock.
• If someone asks for the time, say it in both languages. Warning: this one maybe is best done with close friends, as strangers on the bus might not appreciate your bilingual time-telling skills!

So there you have it. Now you know how to tell the time in Spanish! Give it a whirl right away: what time is it now?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing…

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU.

Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses a natural approach that helps you ease into the Spanish language and culture over time. You’ll learn Spanish as it’s actually spoken by real people.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don’t know, you can add it to a vocab list.

Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU’s robust learning engine. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you’re learning, and gives you extra practice with difficult words. It'll even remind you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they’re learning with the same video.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)