It’s easy to “decir la hora” (to tell time) in Spanish as long as you know your cardinal numbers and ser conjugations.
Need to know what time your meeting starts, when you should be in class or when your favorite show is airing? Then you need to know how to tell time in Spanish! Let’s get started!
Step 1: When telling time in Spanish, we use two phrases: “son las” and “es la”. We use son las for all hours 2-12 and es la only when talking about 1:00. For example: 2:00 = son las dos but 1:00 = es la una.
Step 2: Here is the simple formula for telling time in Spanish:
| Son las or Es la + HOUR + Y + MINUTE |
Examples: 6:05 son las seis y cinco, 3:20 son las tres y veinte
Step 3: At the end of this phrase we can add these phrases to tell which time of the day we are in:
AM = de la mañana
PM = de la tarde (afternoon) or de la noche (night)
Step 4: We have two special words for certain minutes in the day. We do not use the number words for these but these special phrases instead.
:15 = cuarto (3:15 = son las tres y cuarto)
:30 = media (6:30 = son las seis y media)
Step 5: With minutes :45-:59 we often use a special phrasing of “menos”. This is the equivalent to the phrase “5 till” or “quarter till” in English. Just like in English, we will go to the next hour up and calculate the minutes until the next hour. Here is our new formula:
| Son las / Es la + NEXT HOUR UP + MENOS + MINUTES UNTIL NEXT HOUR |
Examples:
6:55 = son las + siete (see how this is the next hour up from 6:00?) + menos + cinco (this is the difference from :55 to the next hour). Your ending phrase will be: son las siete menos cinco. 3:50 = son las + cuatro (see how this is the next hour up from 3:00?) + menos + diez (this is the difference from :50 to the next hour). Your ending phrase will be: son las cuatro menos diez.