A very common question is asking what time it is, and of course stating the time is commonly done as well. There are multiple ways to tell the time in Spanish, and several phrases used in telling the time.
The Textbook Way (Es la or Son las along with y or menos)
A common way of telling the time that you may have heard about in Spanish class is to use either “Es la una” or “Son las …” followed by either y or menos if the time is not sharp (en punto). Es la una means “It is 1 o’clock”. “Es la” is only used when saying 1 o’clock, or times in which 1 is the hour, such as 1:30. All other times, such as 2:30, use “Son las” followed by the time, for example, “It is 2:20″ is son las dos y veinte”. If the minutes value is from 31 through 59, you say the upcoming hour and then use “menos” to state the minutes until that time. So, “It’s 12:50.” is “Es la una menos diez”.
The Short Way
This way of telling time is similar to the textbook way, except that you don’t use “y” or “menos”, you just state the minutes value directly after the hour value. This is done regardless of whether or not the minute value is greater than thirty. “Es la” and “Son las” are still used. For example, “It’s 1:15.” is “Es la una quince”. To say “It’s 1:56”, you could say “Es la una cincuenta y seis”.
An alternative way (using con or para)
A third way of telling time in Spanish is to still use either “Es la” or “Son las” when the minutes value is from 0 through 30, but to use “con” instead of “y”; when the minutes value is from 31 through 59, start the statement with “son”, use “para” in place of “menos” and end the statement with “la” or “las” followed by the hour value. For example, to say that the time is 3:05, you could say “Son las tres y cinco”. To say that the time is 3:35, you could say “Son veinticinco para las cuatro”.
Half hours and quarter hours
There are some terms for when the minutes value is either 15, 30, or 45, which can be used in place of quince, treinta, or cuarenta y cinco. You can still say the number if you prefer, but you do have the option to say cuarto for 15 or 45, and media for 30. So 7:30 would be siete y media. “It’s 12:45” would be “Es la una menos cuarto”.
AM or PM
Spanish times are said with hour values ranging from 1 through 12. Since the time could be AM or PM, there are some phrases that you can add to the end of the statement to clarify.
de la madruga – early morning, as in AM times before sunrise
de la mañana – morning times in general, though in some places this can include all the AM times plus the PM times prior to 2 PM, or PM times if the group of people you are with hasn’t eaten lunch yet.
de la tarde – afternoons and early evenings, typically from 12 pm until 7 pm.
de la noche – times from 7 pm until midnight.
AM – AM, understood but not as common as de la mañana
PM – PM, understood but not common, de la tarde or de la noche can also be used
Specifying the Time of an Event
The preposition “a” followed by “las” or “la” is used to say that something happens at a specific time. For example, “The class ends at 8.” would be “La clase termina a las ocho.”.
Ejemplos
It’s seven o’clock – Son las siete.
Seven o’clock sharp – Las siete en punto
It’s 1:15 – Es la una y cuarto. / Es la una y quince. / Es la una quince. / Es la una con quince.
It’s 3:30 – Son las tres y media. / Son las tres treinta. / Son las tres y treinta. / Son las tres con treinta. / Son las tres con media.
It’s 3:45 – Son las cuatro menos cuarto. / Son las cuatro menos quince. / Son las tres cuarenta y cinco. / Son cuarto para las cuatro. / Son quince para las cuatro.
It’s 4:50 PM – Son las cinco menos diez de la tarde. / Son las cuatro cincuenta de la tarde. / Son diez para las cinco.
It’s 1 in the morning. – Es la una de la madruga.
The match starts at 10 AM. – El partido comienza a las diez de la mañana.
En conclusión
Telling the time in Spanish is actually easy, there are just multiple ways of doing so.