Mastering Time: A Comprehensive Guide to Telling Time in Spanish for English Speakers
One of the first topics in any Spanish class is how to refer to the passing of time and how to tell the time. Learning a language involves mastering not only grammar and vocabulary, but also small but essential everyday conversations. And one of the most common questions is asking for the time in Spanish. Here, you are going to explore how to do it in Spanish and, more importantly, how to understand the answer.
Asking for the Time in Spanish
The first step is to know the essential question to ask for the time. In Spanish, the most common question is “¿Qué hora es?” (“What time is it?”). This is a direct and polite way of asking for the time in Spanish. Here are some examples of how to use it in everyday situations:
- On the street: Imagine you are walking around a Spanish city like Barcelona, and you need to know what time it is, so you are not late for an appointment. You simply walk up to someone and ask: “Perdona, ¿qué hora es?” (“Excuse me, what time is it?”).
- At work: In an important meeting at work, you might need to know how much time has elapsed. You might ask a co-worker: “Oye, ¿qué hora temenos?” (“Hey, what time do we have?”).
- In a shop: When you're shopping and want to know how much time you have before the shop closes, you can say: “Hola, ¿me puedes decir qué hora es?” (“Hey, can you tell me what time it is?”).
- In a conversation with friends: Even in a friendly chat with friends, you often hear, “Oye, ¿qué hora es?” (“Hey, what time is it?”) when you don't want to be late for your restaurant reservation.
Understanding the Time in Spanish
Once you have asked for the time, it is essential to understand the answer. In Spanish, as in many other countries, a 12-hour clock system is used. Here are some examples to help you understand how time is expressed in Spanish.
- The hours: They are expressed first, especially when it is an exact time. For example: “Son las 3” (“I'ts 3pm,”), which means that it is three o'clock in the afternoon. You'll see that the verb "ser" ("to be") goes before the time. This will always be "son", except for when you're saying "one'o'clock", when it will be "es". You'll also see that the feminine article (la/las) goes before the number. It's feminine because it's referring to "la hora". Again, this will always be "las", except in the case of one'o'clock, when it's the singular "la", because it's just one hour.
- The minutes: After the hours, the minutes are mentioned. For example: “Son las 3 y 15” (“It is 15 minutes past three”), which means it is 15 minutes past three.
- Quarters and halves: Quarters and halves are often used to indicate the minutes. “Son las cuatro y cuarto” (“It's quarter past four”) means it's fifteen minutes past four. If you hear: “Son las cinco y media) (“It's half past five”), it means it's thirty minutes past five; you might also hear “Son las siete menos cuarto” (“It's a quarter to seven”), meaning it's 6.45 pm.
- Adding "de la mañana", "de la tarde" or "de la noche": To avoid confusion between morning and afternoon, you can add these expressions: “Son las 10 de la mañana” (“It's 10 o'clock in the morning”) o “Son las cinco de la tarde” (“It's five o'clock in the afternoon”), también puedes decir “Son las 11 de la noche” (“It's 11 o'clock at night”). In most English speaking countries you'd probably start talking about "the night/evening" around 6pm. But in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries, you wouldn't roll out the "de la noche" until around 8pm.
Practical examples
- What time is it? ¿Qué hora es?
- It's eleven o'clock in the morning Son las 11 de la mañana
- It's eight o'clock in the evening Son las ocho de la tarde
- It is five twenty-five in the afternoon Son las cinco y veinticinco de la tarde
- It's 1:15h Es la una y cuarto
- It's 12:30h Son las doce y media
- It's 15:45 Son las cuatro menos cuarto
- It's midnight Es medianoche
- It's noon Es mediodía
- Five minutes ago Hace cinco minutos
- After 8 pm Después de las ocho de la noche
- Before 9 am Antes de las nueve de la mañana
- When does it begin? ¿Cuándo empieza?
- He came on time Él llegó a tiempo
- Early Temprano
- Late Tarde
Additional Vocabulary for Talking About Time
To enrich your understanding and usage of time-related vocabulary in Spanish, consider these useful terms:
- la hora - hour
- el minuto - minute
- el segundo - second
- el reloj - clock
- el horario - schedule
- la mañana - morning (Son las tres de la mañana. - It is three in the morning.)
- la tarde - afternoon
- la noche - evening/night
- ¿Qué hora es? / ¿Qué horas son? - What time is it?
- ¿A qué hora es ___? - At what time is ___?
Dates in Spanish
Days of the Week
There are two things to bear in mind when talking about los días de la semana in Spanish. First of all, the names of the days are generally not capitalised Secondly, days of the week always need an article, but you don’t say ‘on’. Where we might say ‘on Sunday’ in English, we’d typically say ‘el domingo’ in Spanish.
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- Sunday - domingo
- Monday - lunes
- Tuesday - martes
- Wednesday - miércoles
- Thursday - jueves
- Friday - viernes
- Saturday - sábado
When we talk about days in the plural, like ‘I hate Mondays,’ we use the plural masculine article los, so: odio los lunes. The names of the weekdays stay the same, but Saturdays and Sundays become Sábados and Domingos.
Let’s learn some more useful terms for talking about the days of the week in Spanish:
- The week - la semana
- The weekend - El fin de semana
- The weekdays - Los días laborales
- Today - Hoy
- Yesterday - Ayer
- Tomorrow - Mañana
- Tomorrow morning - Mañana por la mañana
Months of the Year
Much like the days of the week, the months of the year are not capitalised, and they’re all masculine nouns in Spanish.
- January - enero
- February - febrero
- March - marzo
- April - abril
- May - mayo
- June - junio
- July - julio
- August - agosto
- September - septiembre
- October - octubre
- November - noviembre
- December - diciembre
Saying and Writing the Date
Although the US-style month-day-year format is sometimes used in Puerto Rico and the Philippines, the overwhelming majority of Spanish speakers around the world use day-month-year. In Spain and parts of the Caribbean, year-month-day is sometimes written out numerically, in order to avoid confusion when communicating internationally.
The most formal way to provide a date is to say ‘el [día] de [mes] del [año].’ For example, ‘Hoy es el trece de octubre del 1999.’ You can always drop the article from the day of the month, and swapping the del for a de is more ordinary in everyday usage.
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The day of the month is always provided as a cardinal number (one, two, three), rather than an ordinal number like in English (first, second, third). The one exception is that in many parts of Latin America it’s also common to refer to the first day of the month as el primer día, while elsewhere el uno is the norm.
Cardinal Numbers in Spanish
The everyday numbers we use when counting or describing quantities are called cardinal numbers. Much like in most European languages, Spanish cardinal numbers follow the decimal system.
That means once you learn the basic building blocks of the Spanish counting system, you’ll be able to say numbers you’ve never used or even heard before.
- 0 - cero
- 1 - uno (when counting) / un (masculine noun) / una (feminine noun)
- 2 - dos
- 3 - tres
- 4 - cuatro
- 5 - cinco
- 6 - seis
- 7 - siete
- 8 - ocho
- 9 - nueve
- 10 - diez
- 11 - once
- 12 - doce
- 13 - trece
- 14 - catorce
- 15 - quince
- 16 - dieciséis
- 17 - diecisiete
- 18 - dieciocho
- 19 - diecinueve
Notice that after fifteen, rather than having unique numbers, Spanish uses a form derived from ‘ten & x.’ The proper way to write these numbers is joined together as a single word, with the z at the end of diez shifting into a c, and the ‘and’ being written as an i rather than y. It’s also important to add a tilde to the final e in dieciséis to prevent the emphasis from falling on the i.
Next, let’s take a look at the multiples of ten. These are pretty straightforward, with most words starting with a fairly similar sound to their single-digit counterpart. On the other hand, it’s important to learn how to say these numbers correctly and not fall into a bad habit of saying ‘digit-teen.’
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- 10 - diez
- 20 - veinte
- 30 - treinta
- 40 - cuarenta
- 50 - cincuenta
- 60 - sesenta
- 70 - setenta
- 80 - ochenta
- 90 - noventa
- 100 - cien
Now we’ve got the building blocks to use any of the Spanish numbers 1-100!
For numbers above thirty, simply add an ‘and’ (y) to the tens digit, followed by the single unit. So for 33, we’d say ‘thirty and three’: treinta y tres. Since the y follows an ‘a’ vowel sound from the previous word, pronunciation is usually joined up, as though they were a single word.
The twenties work in much the same way, but there’s a subtle change to how these numbers are written and pronounced. Rather than a separate ‘and,’ the vowel at the end of veinte shifts to an ‘i,’ to form a single connected word with the unit - veintidós, veintitrés, etc.
As for the 100s, there’s once again a simple pattern with a few small exceptions:
Any number ending in exactly 100 will end with simply cien. For instance, one million, one thousand, and one hundred is simply un millón mil cien.
When you add units or tens to one hundred, cien transforms into ciento, followed by the rest of the number. There is no need for an ‘and’ here, so 133 is said ‘one hundred thirty and three’: ciento treinta y tres.
When you reach two hundred, the hundred component gains both a prefix and the possibility of a gender, if the noun being described is known. For example, doscientas casas (f), trescientos castillos (m).
Five hundred is something of a wildcard: quinientas for a feminine noun, or quinientos otherwise.
700 and 900 borrow their prefixes from 70 and 90. As a result, they are setecientos/as and novecientos/as, respectively. For every other hundred, just start with the regular digit.
Here’s a table to summarise all that:
- 100 - One hundred - Cien
- 101 - One hundred and one - Ciento uno
- 110 - One hundred and ten - Ciento diez
- 133 - One hundred and thirty-three - Ciento treinta y tres
- 200 - Two hundred - Doscientos,Doscientas (describing a feminine noun)
- 201 - Two hundred and one - Doscientos uno, Doscientas una (f)
- 500 - Five hundred - Quinientos, Quinientas (f)
- 700 - Seven hundred - Setecientos, Setecientas (f)
- 800 - Eight hundred - Ochocientos, Ochocientas (f)
- 900 - Nine hundred - Novecientos, Novecientas (f)
- 999 - Nine hundred and ninety-nine - Novecientos noventa y nueve, Novecientas noventa y nueve (f)
- 1000 - A thousand - Mil
Now we can count from one to a thousand in Spanish!
The thousands give no surprises whatsoever. The fourth digit has no gender, and no spoken plurality to worry about. When we get to the millions, we must contend with plurals once more, but it’s very straightforward. If you’ve mastered the teens and the tens, the big numbers are a piece of cake!
One thing to bear in mind is that Spanish uses the old European definition of ‘billion’, i.e. one million millions, not one thousand millions, as many other languages have adopted.
- 1000 - One thousand - Mil
- 1100 - One thousand, one hundred - Mil cien
- 2201 - Two thousand, two hundred and one - Dos mil doscientos uno (counting). Dos mil doscientos un (masculine noun). Dos mil doscientas una (feminine noun)
- 21,000 - Twenty-one thousand - Veintiún mil. Veintiuna mil (f)
- 200,000 - Two hundred thousand - Doscientos mil. Doscientas mil (f)
- 1,000,000 - One million - Un millón
- 2,000,000 - Two million - Dos millones
- 1,000,000,000 - One billion - Mil millones. Un millardo (used in Venezuela and sometimes for succinctness in science
- 1,000,000,000,000 - One trillion - Un billón
- 2,000,000,000,000 - Two trillion - Dos billones
Pronunciation of Years and Phone Numbers
If you were born in 1985, in English you would usually split the number into two number couplets, saying ‘I was born in nineteen / eighty-five’ rather than ‘I was born in one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-five.’
But in Spanish, years are almost universally pronounced like regular numbers. So you would in fact say, ‘Nací en mil novecientos ochenta y cinco.’
As for phone numbers, tendencies vary widely, not just between countries but even between individuals. It’s quite common to group numbers up into couplets, say each digit individually, or mix and match.
Just like in other parts of the world, each Spanish-speaking country has its own country calling code (prefijo telefónico mundial) that has to be used to connect from abroad. These are typically denoted by a “+” followed by a group of one to three digits at the beginning of the phone number.
- Andorra +376
- Argentina +54
- Aruba +297
- Belize +501
- Bolivia +591
- Caribbean Netherlands +599 3, +599 4, +599 7
- Chile +56
- Colombia +57
- Costa Rica +506
- Cuba +53
- Curaçao +599 9
- Dominican Republic +1-809, +1-829, +1-849
- Ecuador +593
- El Salvador +503
- Equatorial Guinea +240
- Gibraltar +350
- Guatemala +502
- Honduras +504
- Mexico +52
- Nicaragua +505
- Panama +507
- Paraguay +595
- Peru +51
- Philippines +63
- Puerto Rico +1 787, +1 939
- Spain +34
- United States of America +1
- Uruguay +598
- Venezuela +58
Ordinal Numbers in Spanish
While cardinal numbers are those that you use in most situations (‘I have three cats’), ordinal numbers are those you use to describe a position in a sequence, for example, ‘take the third door on your left.’
As we have seen, many cardinal numbers in Spanish remain the same regardless of the gender or plurality of the noun they’re describing. Ordinal numbers are different: they are adjectives and always match the noun. In the case of ‘first’ and ‘third,’ they actually behave a lot like un/una/uno, with a shortened form for describing masculine singular words.
| English | Shorthand | Spanish Shorthand | Spanish Word | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1st | 1.er | Primer | Masculine Noun |
| 1st | 1st | 1.o | Primero | Unspecified Noun |
| 1st | 1st | 1.a | Primera | Feminine Noun |
| 1st | 1st | 1.os / 1.as | Primeros/as | Plural Noun |
| 2nd | 2nd | 2.o | Segundo | M or Unspecified |
| 2nd | 2nd | 2.a | Segunda | F |
| 2nd | 2nd | 2.os / 2.as | Segundos/as | Plural |
| 3rd | 3rd | 3.er | Tercer | M |
| 3rd | 3rd | 3.o | Tercero | Unspecified |
| 3rd | 3rd | 3.a | Tercera | F |
| 3rd | 3rd | 3.os / 3.as | Terceros/as | Plural |
| 4th | 4th | 4.o | Cuarto | M or Unspecified |
| 4th | 4th | 4.a | Cuarta | F |
| 4th | 4th | 4.os / 4.as | Cuartos/as | Plural |
| 5th | 5th | 5.o | Quinto | M or Unspecified |
| 5th | 5th | 5.a | Quinta | F |
| 5th | 5th | 5.os / 5.as | Quintos/as | Plural |
| 6th | 6th | 6.o | Sexto | M or Unspecified |
| 6th | 6th | 6.a | Sextas | F |
| 6th | 6th | 6.os / 6.as | Sextos/as | Plural |
| 7th | 7th | 7.o | Séptimo | M or Unspecified |
| 7th | 7th | 7.a | Séptima | F |
| 7th | 7th | 7.os / 7.as | Séptimos/as | Plural |
| 8th | 8th | 8.o | Octavo | M or Unspecified |
| 8th | 8th | 8.a | Octava | F |
| 8th | 8th | 8.os / 8.as | Octavos/as | Plural |
| 9th | 9th | 9.o | Noveno | M or Unspecified |
| 9th | 9th | 9.a | Novena | F |
| 9th | 9th | 9.os / 9.as | Novenos/as | Plural |
| 10th | 10th | 10.o | Décimo | M or Unspecified |
| 10th | 10th | 10.a | Décima | F |
| 10th | 10th | 10.os / 10.as | Décimos/as | Plural |
| 11th | 11th | 11.er | Decimoprimer | M |
| 11th | 11th | 11.o | Decimoprimero | Unspecified |
| 11th | 11th | 11.a | Decimoprimera | F |
| 11th | 11th | 11.os / 11.as | Decimoprimeros/as | Plural |
| 11th | 11th | 11.o / a | Undécimo/a | Alternative Singular |
| 11th | 11th | 11.os / 11.as | Undécimos/as | Alternative Plural |
| 12th | 12th | 12.o | Decimosegundo | M or Unspecified |
| 12th | 12th | 12.a | Decimosegunda | F |
| 12th | 12th | 12.os / 12.as | Decimosegundos/as | Plural |
| 12th | 12th | 12.o / a | Duodécimo/a | Alternative Singular |
| 12th | 12th | 12.os / 12.as | Duodécimos/as | Alternative Plural |
| 13th | 13th | 13.er | Decimotercer | M |
| 13th | 13th | 13.o | Decimotercero | Unspecified |
| 13th | 13th | 13.a | Decimotercera | F |
| 13th | 13th | 13.os / 13.as | Decimoterceros/as | Plural |
| 20th | 20th | 20.o / a / os / as | Vigésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 30th | 30th | 30.o / a / os / as | Trigésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 40th | 40th | 40.o / a / os / as | Cuadragésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 50th | 50th | 50.o / a / os / as | Quincuagésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 60th | 60th | 60.o / a / os / as | Sexagésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 70th | 70th | 70.o / a / os / as | Septuagésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 80th | 80th | 80.o / a / os / as | Octogésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 90th | 90th | 90.o / a / os / as | Nonagésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 100th | 100th | 100.o / a / os / as | Centésimo/a/os/as | M / F / P / P |
| 200th | 200th | 200.o / … |
Learning Tips and Tricks
- Define your language learning goals: "I just like the sound of Spanish" and "I'm going to live in a Spanish-speaking country" are two different goals. Either way, learning a language requires effort. Based on your goals, you can distinguish the time and intensity of practice. Also, there are different types of Spanish: Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, etc. If you are going to live in Madrid, like me, you’ll need to be learning Castilian Spanish.
- Don’t waste (too much) time on Duolingo: It will mix Castellan Spanish and Latin American Spanish; It won’t explain basic grammar rules, which will be puzzling in the future. It’s best use is as an additional, fun way to practice vocabulary.
- Grammar is the backbone of language: Noticing structures that I learned recently, or using grammatical constructions when talking brings you joy. You may have a very limited vocabulary, but with adequate input, one can construct sentences based on the grammar rules. You’ll need to understand agreement between nouns and adjectives in terms of gender and number.
- Build vocabulary & start listening ASAP: Half of the words I learned were from conversations and different places, like supermarkets. Another half was from books my teacher uses in the teaching process. Listening to news, information, and easy Spanish videos will help to grasp regular, everyday language.
- Speak as much as you can: Be creative in finding people to speak with (or use paid services, where natives will speak to you in exchange for money). As a rule, every time I interact with people, I do it in Spanish. I make a lot of mistakes, pronounce words incorrectly, and use hand gestures if I don’t know a word for something. As long as it works, I’m doing it.
- Read books: After learning basic grammar, I recommend reading books as soon as possible. It helps to apply grammar rules and learn new words.
tags: #learning #time #in #spanish #for #english
