Lesson 7 notes - telling the time

Grupo Básico Español – lección siete

Buenos días señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la lección siete de la clase de español. Vamos a aprender a decir la hora. Primero tenemos un video.

Did you click on the video. Do that now, watch the video and then come back to this article.

To ask the time: ¿Qué hora es?
To ask at what time: ¿A qué hora?

Note that tiempo is weather and time, but when asking the time, we use the form above ¿Qué hora es? – literally “what is the hour”.

Always use hora when talking about specific times such as the time of the day, the time a train leaves or coffee time (la hora del café). Use tiempo when talking about time as an abstract concept – no tengo tiempo (I don't have time) or tienes tiempo para tomar tu té antes de ir a las tiendas.

Here are some useful time-related words.

Hoy – today. Hoy, es martes.
Mañana – tomorrow. Mañana es miercoles.
Pasado mañana – the day after tomorrow. Pasado mañana, es jueves.
Ayer – yesterday. Ayer, fue lunes.
Anteayer – the day before yesterday. Anteayer, fue domingo.

Semana – week. Esta semana, el tiempo está muy mal.
El fin de semana – weekend. Vamos a ir a la playa el fin de semana.
La proxima semana – next week. La próxima semana me voy de vacaciones.
La semana pasada – last week. Fue el cumpleaños de mi tía la semana pasada.

Mañana – morning. Me levanté tarde esta mañana.
Tarde – afternoon. Tengo que ir de compras esta tarde.
Noche – evening or night Esta noche iré al teatro.
Mediodía – midday El almuerzo es al mediodía.
Medianoche – midnight A medianoche salen los fantasmas.

Madrugada – early hours of the morning Mi vuelo sale en la madrugada.
El amanecer – dawn Mañana debemos levantarnos al amanecer.
El anochecer – dusk Al anochecer prenderemos las luces.
Tarde – late; Apúrate que vamos a llegar tarde.
Más tarde o luego – later


Temprano – early; earlier is más temprano (what is a little earlier) Es muy temprano por eso las tiendas están cerradas.
Retrasado – delayed El autobús está retrasado.
Todos los días - every day Todos los martes voy a la clase de español)
Cada día - each day Cada día practico hablar español)

¿A qué hora? - at what time …. ? (and here we have a little tribute to our former teacher John Douglas).

¿A qué hora sale el tren para Gijón?
¿A qué hora llega tu amigo John de Gijón?
¿A qué hora se sirve el desayuno?
¿A qué hora cierran las tiendas?

Horas – hours
Minutos – minutes
Segundos – seconds
Cuarto – quarter
Media - half

¿Qué hora es?

Son las diez – it is 10 o'clock

Half-past ten (10.30) is: son las diez y media (ten and a half)
Quarter-past ten (10.15) is: son las diez y cuarto
It is 3.15? Son las tres y cuarto.

To signify whether it is morning, afternoon or evening use: de la mañana, de la tarde o de la noche.

If it is four o'clock, you might want to emphasise that it's bang on the hour by saying: son las cuarto en punto. You could also say: it's exactly 3.30 – son las tres y media en punto.

We have been using the verb ser to say (literally translated) “there are”. If it was 1 o'clock, what would we say?

Es la una o es la una en punto. Es = he/she/it is. Because it’s singular (only one hour) we use es. We would also use the singular form of ser for midday or midnight. Es (it is) mediodía o es medianoche.

Almost is casi, so: es casi medianoche. About is sobre, so: es sobre el mediodía.

To say it is so many minutes past the hour, you say, for example: son las ocho y veinticinco. If you wanted to say it is 8.35, you could say: son las ocho y treinta y cinco o son las nueve menos veinticinco (it is 9 minus 25, so 8.35).

Let’s see if we have taught you well?

Lucy will read out some times in Spanish. You write down what time it is.



  1. La hora es medianoche.
  2. Son las cuatro y media de la tarde
  3. Es la una y cuarto de la tarde
  4. La hora son las once menos diez de la mañana
  5. Son las siete y diecisiete

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