How To Tell Time in Spanish?

Telling time in Spanish is quite easy if you know your numbers 1-60 in Spanish.

There are some simple questions & expressions that you could use to ask for the time in Spanish. Notice some below:

Unidades de tiempo / Units of time:

a second = un segundo ; seconds = segundos

a minute = un minuto ; minutes = minutos

an hour = una hora; hours = horas

a quarter of an hour = un cuarto de hora

half an hour = media hora

Para preguntar la hora / To ask for the time

What time is it? ¿Qué hora es?

Can you tell me what time? ¿Me puedes decir la hora?

What time do you have? ¿Qué hora tienes?

Now let’s look at a few examples of expressions below of how to tell time in Spanish:

it’s twelve o’clock – son las doce

it’s exactly five o’clock – son las cinco en punto

it’s a quarter past three – son las tres y cuarto or son las tres y quince

it’a almost 11pm – son casi las once de la noche

around or about 4 p.m – alrededor de las cuatro de la tarde

sometime between 9 and 10 a.m. – entre las nueve y diez de la mañana.

If Spanish, if you would like to state a specify time in the morning, in the afternoon or at night, use the following:

in the morning  – de la mañana

in the afternoon – de la tarde

in the evening – de la tarde/noche

at night –  de la noche

midnight – medianoche

a mediodia – noon

Now that you have learned a few expressions about how to tell time in Spanish, why not try practicing these with a native speaker? The more you practice telling time in Spanish, the better you will be.