Almost immediately after mastering the basic grammar and vocabulary, they move on to the topic "". It would seem, what can be difficult? But here, too, a lot of snags arise, since some points differ from how we are used to calling time in our native language.

Features of the topic "how to call time in English"

Let's see, how to call time in english right. It is important to pay attention to the fact that English speakers do not have 17.00, 20.00, 21.00 and so on. Their clock time is rather limited: from 00.00 to 12.00. In order for the interlocutor to understand everything correctly, they specify part of the day. That is, you need to add to the phrase in the morning or in the evening... Most often, in this case, they use abbreviations: a.m.(for the morning) and p.m.(for the afternoon). That is, seven in the morning in English will be 7 o'clock in the morning, and seven in the evening - 7 o'clock in the evening ... When speaking in English, one should generally forget that 19.00 exists in nature.

How to call time in English

Now let's expand our vocabulary so that we no longer think about how to tell the time correctly in English... Here are some words that will definitely come in handy:

half- half (30 minutes)

quarter- quarter (15 minutes)

to- k (for phrases like "no 15 minutes")

past- after

sharp- exactly

Now we conditionally divide the watch dial into two parts. In order to say 5, 10 or more minutes of an hour, you cannot do without an excuse past. If a certain number of minutes remain before the round number, then we need a preposition from the left side of the dial - to.

Examples:

14.00 - two o'clock sharp(exactly two hours)

14.05 - five minutes past two (five minutes past three)

14.10 - ten minutes past two (ten minutes past three)

14.15 - a quarter past two (fifteen minutes past three)

14.20 - twenty minutes past two (twenty minutes past three)

14.25 - twenty-five minutes past two (twenty five minutes past three)

14.30 - half past two (half past three)

14.35 - twenty-five minutes to three (thirty-five minutes past three)

14.40 - twenty minutes to three (twenty minutes to three)

14.45 - a quarter to three (fifteen minutes to three)

14.50 - ten minutes to three (ten minutes to three)

"Tell me, what time is it now?" - this is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions. And if you are asked for it in Russian, you will probably just look at the time and calmly name the number. What if you are asked to say the time in English? What is the correct answer to a person who looks at you with an expectant gaze? Of course, you can not name the time, but just poke your finger at the clock, but why not learn how to say phrases about time, which will certainly be useful to you. In fact, it is not at all difficult to do this, and today you will see for yourself by studying the topic "Time in English table clock".

How to ask the time in English?

First, let's figure out how to say "what time" in English. Typically, for such a question, the following phrases are used that need to be learned:

You can also use the combination "what time" (what time / what time) in questions about actions in the past, present and future:

Instead of "what time", the question word "when" can also be used in a question:

Having figured out how to ask what time it is in English, let's study the possible answers.

Time in English: tables about hours

There are two ways to answer the question of what time it is in English:

1. The first is equivalent to the Russian "fifteen minutes to so-and-so", "20 minutes so-and-so" and similar designations of time. To use this option, you need to learn two temporary pointers. Consider a table of these prepositions with transcription:

It is necessary to start sentences about tense with the subject and the predicate "it is" (it is), which are often shortened to "it's". They are used to construct a sentence, but are usually omitted in translation into Russian. After them comes the number of minutes, then one of the temporary indicators above. The sentence ends with a digit indicating the hour. Sometimes, after the hour, the time of day is also indicated:

In general, the construction table looks like this:

It

is

minutes

past / to

hour

Times of Day.

Examples of:

It’s five past ten (in the evening).	Five minutes past ten (in the evening).
It's twenty six minutes to ten.	Twenty-six minutes to ten.
It's ten to one.	Ten o'clock.

Perhaps after these examples, you only have even more questions. Let's figure them out. In the first sentence you could be confused by the translation, because instead of the indicated ten (ten) in Russian it is not clear where it came from “eleven”. The fact is that the time is usually translated so that everything sounds clear in Russian. If translated literally, the sentence will sound a little different:

That is, in English they mean that at first it was 10 hours, and after that 5 minutes passed. In Russian, we, as a rule, believe that it has already gone 11 o'clock, and therefore, despite the fact that, in fact, it is 10:05, we call the next hour in order.

In the second example, everything seems to be quite logical. However, you may have noticed that unlike the first example, the second contains the word “minutes”. The fact is that if the sentence mentions numbers that are not multiples of five, the presence of this word is simply necessary. Let's compare:

Multiples of 5	Not multiples of 5
It's twenty past one. (Twenty past one.)	It's seventeen minutes past one. (Seventeen minutes past one.)
It's five to four. (Five minutes to four.)	It's eight minutes to four. (Eight minutes to four.)

By the way, speaking of minutes, one cannot fail to mention the words, which in some way are an exception. In English, as well as in Russian, thirty minutes is called "half". Therefore, when half of something is meant, the word half is used in combination with past, since 30 minutes still refers to the first part of the hour:

Also, English speakers usually do not use the phrases "fifteen minutes" or "fifteen minutes." They replace the word fifteen with “quarter”. In English, this word is translated as "quarter". It is used according to standard schemes, but in combination with the indefinite article a:

It's a quarter past nine.	Fifteen minutes after nine.
It's a quarter to two.	It's fifteen to two.

By the way, mentioning "to" and "too" it is worth noting that students often have doubts about these two words. Their pronunciation is the same, both words are pronounced like.

Please note that some examples do not include times of day. Everything here is very similar to the Russian language. Indeed, if it is clear from the context that we are talking about evening time, we do not emphasize this. It is also worth noting that everything is often omitted in speech, except for the time itself:

Everything seems to be clear with the minutes, but what if we want to name the hour as an integer? In such cases, the word "o'clock" (hour) is added after the number, which can often be omitted. Please note that this word is written with an apostrophe, which in no case can be ignored:

Remembering these adverbs is not difficult, since they are often found in sentences outside of temporary phrases.

If you are asked the question of when (at what time) this or that event happened or will happen, before the time you need to put the preposition at, which plays the role of the Russian "in":

If you want to say that the action (will be) done by some time, use the "by" verb:

In both cases, the time "twelve" can be expressed by nouns:

If you need to express that the action lasted from such and such a time to such and such, two prepositions are used at once: from (from) ... to (to) ...:

To say that some action lasted for so many hours / minutes, the for preposition ("during") is used:

Using the preposition in, you can tell after how long (will happen) the action:

1. But there is a second option, which, perhaps, you will like much more. The English language is rapidly simplifying, and therefore, in order not to load sentences with "halves" and "pastes", now more and more often you can hear this particular way of expressing time. In order to use it, you need to know two things:

• English account up to 60
• Time indicators a.m. and p.m.

Still, we will not dwell on numbers, but it is worth talking about pointers, because they often cause difficulties for language learners. In fact, everything is very simple. Both of these abbreviations originate from the Latin language and mean the following:

• a.m. - time before noon, that is, from 00:00 to 12:00;
• p.m. - time in the afternoon, that is, from 12:00 to 00:00.

As you may have noticed, neither the first nor the second case uses 24-hour time. In English-speaking countries, it is simply not common. Therefore, you should not ignore these designations, otherwise, when using the 12-hour format, you may not be understood correctly.

Remembering them, you can use the following technique: the alphabet begins with the letter a, it symbolizes the beginning. Accordingly, a.m. implies the start of a new day, while p.m. its continuation. If this method does not work for you, come up with another, but be sure to learn to distinguish between both pointers.

Basically, no rules are used in the method itself. You just need to name the numbers, but not the ones that the dial shows, but those that can be seen in the corner of the computer desktop, electronic clock and phone.

If the context makes it clear that you mean morning, afternoon, or evening, the signs do not need to say:

Which option to use is up to you. In any case, they will understand you. The only thing is, give preference to the standard version if you need to write time for any exam papers, because the second method is still less formal and is used exclusively in everyday communication. When writing your work, consider what kind of English you are being taught or what kind of English you are expected to use. Remember that instead of "past" and "to" in British, American English uses "after" and "of". Examples:

To indicate the exact time in English, seconds are also used ("seconds"):

Numbers are not necessarily written in words. We did this solely for clarity, although the usual use of numbers is relevant in English as well.

English time table clock: time dictionary

Other words related to time can be noted. In sentences, they usually appear not to determine the time, but knowing these words certainly does not hurt:

Particular attention should be paid to the word "time" - "time". Despite its importance, « clock "and" time "in English can sometimes have nothing in common. So, "time" is used in questions about time, but in affirmative sentences this word is used independently and cannot name the time. That is, despite its meaning "time", it does not name time itself:

It can also have the values ​​"times":

The same can be said for the word "hour". Despite the fact that hours with minutes and seconds are mentioned in the sentence about time, the word “hour” itself is used only with “for” (“during”) or when indicating the number of hours spent. The word is also often used in phraseological units:

When specifying the time
I am listening to his songs for 2 hours now.	I have been listening to his songs for 2 hours.
We had to spend 6 hours in the queue.	We had to queue for 6 hours.
With phraseological units
I do love all the parts of Rush Hour. rush hour - rush hour	I love all the parts of Rush Hour.
We were waiting for zero hour to start the operation too long. The time has come! zero hour - the decisive hour	We have waited too long for the decisive hour for the operation to begin. The time has come!
I think his performance was just an amateur hour. amateur hour - when the action is performed not by professionals, but by amateurs	I think his performance was just amateur.

That's all. The study of this topic should not give you much difficulty. The main thing is to remember the index words. Follow the exercises on the topic and write your own examples to help solidify the material. If some information has gone out of your head, read this article again, paying attention to all the nuances. And, of course, try to interest yourself, because learning from under your own stick will not bring pleasure, and therefore result.

> Time in English

Time in English. The clock is in English. How to answer what time or what time?

You can find the time in English here. The clock is in English. How to answer what time or what time?

Many people put off knowing the time in English until later, but in fact it is very important, since in colloquial speech we constantly ask each other for the time. And yet, it is quite easy to learn all this, the main thing is to figure it out once, and then only repeat it sometimes.

So the main question that you may be asked in terms of "what time" or "what time is it" - What time is it (now)? or What "s the time?

To get started, you should know the following:

Before you start you need to put it's.

Up to half an hour should be used " past", and after half -" to".

Instead of the word "fifteen" you should use quarter(quarter).

Word minutes(minutes) is usually omitted in English.

So let's get down to examples.

First way:

00.00 (midnight) - midnight, it will also be useful to know - at midnight - at midnight, after midnight - after midnight, well after midnight - in the small hours

00.05 (five minutes past midnight) - it's five past zero am

01.10 (ten minutes past one am) - it's ten past one am

02.15 (fifteen minutes of the third night) - it's a quarter past two am

03.20 (twenty minutes past three in the morning) - it's twenty past three am

04.25 (twenty-five minutes past four in the morning) - it's twenty five past four am

05.30 (half past six in the morning) - it's half past five am

06.35 (thirty-five minutes of the seventh in the morning, and they speak at 25 minutes to 7) - it "s twenty five to seven am

07.40 (twenty eight in the morning) - it "s twenty to eight am

08.45 (fifteen to nine in the morning) - it "s a quarter to nine am

09.50 (ten to ten in the morning) - it "s ten to ten am

10.55 (five minutes to eleven in the morning) - it "s five to eleven am

12.00 (noon) - noon or midday, it will also be useful to know - at noon - at noon, before noon - forenoon, afternoon - afternoon, afternoon - in the afternoon

12.05 (five minutes of the first day) - it "s five past twelve pm

13.10 (ten minutes of the second day) - it "s ten past one pm

14.15 (fifteen minutes of the third day) - it "s a quarter past two pm

15.20 (twenty minutes of the fourth day) - it "s twenty past three pm

16.25 (twenty five minutes of the fifth day) - it "s twenty five past four pm

17.30 (half past five in the evening) - it's half past five pm

18.35 (thirty-five minutes of the seventh in the evening, and they speak 25 minutes to 7) - it "s twenty five to seven pm

19.40 (twenty minutes eight in the evening) - it "s twenty to eight pm

20.45 (fifteen minutes to nine in the evening) - it "s a quarter to nine pm

21.50 (ten minutes to ten in the evening) - it "s ten to ten pm

22.55 (five minutes to eleven pm) - it "s five to eleven pm

1, 2, 3 ... hours they usually speak simply - one, two, three ... o "clock, for example, ten o'clock in the morning - ten o "clock a.m.

Also, instead of a.m. you can use the expression - in the morning, and instead of p.m. use in the evening, for example 05.15 (fifteen minutes past six in the morning) - it's a quarter past five a.m. or it's a quarter past five in the morning.

It should also be mentioned that in English (as well as in Russian) they like to abbreviate everything, so often the time will be used without it's at the beginning, and am, pm and the phrase in the morning, in the evening are used only when it will not be clear without it ... That is, for example, to the question "When do you go to bed? - When do you go to bed?" The answer is "at ten - at ten" and there is no need to add "evenings", so this is understandable ...

In American English, the preposition is often used instead of past after... And instead of the preposition to, you can use prepositions of, before and till.

Second way:

The simplest, just say as it is, for example,

5.05 - (five zero five) - five oh (zero) five

6.10 - (six ten) - six ten

7.15 - (seven fifteen) - seven fifteen

8.20 - (eight twenty) - eight twenty

9.25 - (nine twenty five) - nine twenty five

10.30 - (ten thirty) - ten thirty

11.35 - (eleven thirty five) - eleven thirty five

12.40 - (twelve forty) - twelve forty

13.45 - (thirteen forty five) - thirteen forty five

16.50 - (sixteen fifty) - sixteen fifty

20.55 - (twenty fifty five) - tventy fifty five

In addition, you need to know the following prepositions and in what cases they apply, if you want to be even more specific about the time.

And finally, remember the following words:

exactly- exactly; for example, it "s exactly nine (exactly nine o'clock)
about- about; for example, it "s about seven (about seven o'clock)
almost- nearly; for example, it "s almost eight (almost eight hours)

V English language there are clear rules to tell you exactly what time it is.

For example, in our language the time format consists of 24 hours and in the afternoon after 12.00 we often speak 13, 14, 15 and so on.

There is a clear division of time in English:

• AM (00:00 - 12:00): AM (Ante Merediem)
• Afternoon (12:00 - 24:00): PM (Post Merediem)

For example, the sign of a cafe may look like this:

• Open from 7.30 am to (till) 11 pm.

You can also replace AM with “in the morning” and PM with “in the afternoon”.

• Are you insane to call at 4 o'clock in the morning?
• The presentation will be held at 5 in the afternoon.

If everything is clear in writing, then for oral understanding (pronunciation) of time you need to know the rules.

To indicate time in hours and minutes in English language three prepositions are used: at (at), past (after), to (before).

The clock is divided into two parts - each half an hour.

To indicate the time up to half an hour inclusive (minute hand from 12.00 to 6.00 on the dial), the preposition PAST is used (after):

• At ten minutes past two. - At ten minutes past three. Literally: 10 minutes after two, 2:10 or 14:10.

To indicate the time after half an hour inclusive (minute hand from 6.00 to 12.00 on the dial), the preposition TO (before) is used:

• At ten minutes to two. - At ten minutes to two or one hour and 50 minutes. Literally: 10 minutes to two, 1:50 or 13:50.

There is such a thing as "quarter of an hour" - "quarter" (15 minutes). A quarter can be up to half an hour and after half an hour and is always used with the indefinite article "a".

• At a quarter to five. - At a quarter to five - fifteen to five. Literally: at quarter to five, 4:45 am or 4:45 pm
• At a quarter past five. - At fifteen minutes past six. Literally: a quarter after five, 5:15 am or 5:15 pm

Half is denoted by the word "half" - hæf (30 minutes) (the letter L cannot be read), without an article.

• At half past six.
• At half past seven.

Exactly any hour (no minutes):

• At ten o'clock

To the question What time is it? the answer begins with the words It is ...

• It is six o "clock
• It`s 12 o "clock

More examples:

How to say "within three hours": for 3 hours ("h" is not read in the word "hours")

How to say "more than three hours": for over 3 hours

• We have been waiting for the delayed flight for over 3 hours.

How to say "in an hour": in an hour - if we are talking about the future

• The guests will arrive in an hour.

after an hour - if we are talking about the past

• After an hour of our waiting the guests finally arrived.

How to say "in half an hour": in half an hour ("L" is not read in the word "half")

How to say "in an hour and a half": in an hour and a half

How to say "on time": in time or on time.

In time - "in time for any event."

• You are just in time for dinner.
• On time
• He is unlikely to come on time.

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How often do you check your watch? At least every day, unless you live somewhere in the jungle or on a desert island, cut off from civilization. Every day, waking up, we first of all look at the clock, monitor our diet in time, rush to a meeting, keep track of the minutes in order to be punctual, but sometimes we are late.

Time plays a very important role in our life. Therefore, for those who are studying English, be able to ask or say how much time is simply needed. If, speaking of time, you are not completely sure of the correctness of the explanation, I advise you to read the article to the end, where I will try to explain very simply and in detail to you all the most necessary nuances of time in English.

First, let's find out:

How to ask what time it is ( Time ):

What is the time now? – Which now time?
What time is it? – how many time?
Could you tell me the time, please? – tell please time
Do you know what time it is?– You you know how now time?

To begin with, consider the simplest scenario. If the clock shows us the exact time, we can say:

5.00 - It is five o`clock

3.00 - It is three o`clock

10.00 - It is ten o`clock

“Excuse me, what time is it now? "-" It is 3.00 o`clock ". – sorry, how now time?” – « Time 3 hours»

If minutes are added to the hours on the dial, then, of course, most of you will answer as follows:

1.15 - It is one fifteen

2.35 - It is two thirty five

3.30 - It is three thirty

5.55 - It is five fifty five

1.05 – It is one O— five(boldly replace zero with O for a simpler pronunciation)

And this is true. But, if you turn to an Englishman with a question about the time, he will answer you a little differently. And in order to understand it, let's analyze and learn all kinds of options.

When the minute hand of the clock is located between 12 and 6, we call the number of minutes, then “past”, then we call the total number of hours that have passed:

2.10 - It is ten past two

3.20 - It is twenty past three

8.25 - It is twenty five past eight

10.30 - It is thirty past ten (or it`s half past ten)

If translated literally, it turns out that 10 minutes have passed after two, 20 minutes after three, etc. exactly up to 30 minutes inclusive. After 30 minutes, our minute hand brings us closer to the new hour, so we have to report how many minutes are left until the next full hour. To do this, we name the minutes, then "to", then the approaching hour. For example,

6.45 - It is fifteen to seven

9.55 - It is five to ten

11.35 - It is twenty five minutes to twelve.

As many of you have probably noticed, the British use a 12-hour clock. And to distinguish between day and night, they use the notation

a.m (lat.ante meridiem) and p.m (lat.post meridiem).

Based on the 24-hour format, the time designation will be as follows:

24.00 - 12.00 (not inclusive) - a.m - until noon

12.00 - Noon / midday - noon

12 - 24.00 (not inclusive) - p.m - afternoon

24.00 - Midnight - midnight

"When do you wake up?" — “ I wake up at 7 a . m .” – what time you wake up? - I wake up at 7 am.

Please note that when denoting a.m and p.m at the end, we no longer add o ` clock

Often a.m and p.m in colloquial speech are replaced by “in the morning” and “in the evening”

“I wake up at 7 in the morning” - I wake up at 7 am.

"I have a dinner at 8 in the evening" - I have dinner at 8 pm.

When we talk about time, we usually use the preposition « at»

Let's complicate the task a little, consider some values ​​of the minute hand. For example, we can replace 30 minutes with the word half:

5.30 - It's half past five.

6.30 - It's half past six.

It is important to remember here, we never say "It`s half to seven", we must always indicate that half an hour has already passed "It`s half past six"

We can replace 15 minutes with the word quarter, which means "quarter"

3.15 - It’s quarter past three.

9.15 - It's quarter past nine.

in case the clock has 45 minutes, we also use quarter to indicate that there is a quarter left until the next hour:

2.45 - It’s quarter to three.

6.45 - It's quarter to seven - or literally "a quarter to seven"

Learning to correctly ask and name the time is not so difficult, it is enough to know the numbers and a few simple rules well, but even the simplest rules of the English language will not be remembered from just reading the article. The next time you look into your watch, try to spell out the rules in English. And by the way, this is a good way to show off your knowledge of the English language in front of your friends the next time they ask you about the time. Well, in order to consolidate the knowledge gained in the article, try to answer the following questions correctly:

1. What is the time now? - Which time now?
2. When do you have a breakfast? - When do you usually have breakfast?
3. What time are you going to sleep? - When you going to go sleep?
4. What is the time in Tokyo now? - Which time now v Tokyo?
5. What is the time in London now? - Which time now v London?

I am sure that you have coped with this task and are ready to move on. By joining our school Enline, any rule of the English language will no longer seem complicated and confusing to you. Our teachers will help you learn English easily and affordably.

The article was written by Ramila Kulakova, a teacher at the Enline online school of English.