How to tell time in English: What time is it?

Telling the time in English is easy once you know a few simple rules and how to apply them!

To begin with, we use am for all times before noon and pm for all times after noon.

Orally, we can express the time either by reading the digits and numbers or by using the words half or quarter.

Here’s a quick grammar guide to help you master telling the time!

How to write time in English

To write or tell the time in English, you need to know two important adverbs: am and pm. These are used to show whether the time is before or after noon.

Example: 4 am means 4 o’clock in the morning, but 4 pm means 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

Morning and Afternoon Time in English: am and pm

In both British English and American English, you don’t write “16:00” to mean 4 pm like in some other languages. English speakers use a 12-hour clock instead of a 24-hour system. In English, the day is therefore divided into two periods: am (before noon) and pm (after noon).

What do AM and PM mean?

The two letters AM mean ante meridian: this is not English… but Latin! It stands for “before noon”. The adverb am is therefore used for all hours of the morning, that is to say from midnight until noon.

The two letters PM mean post meridian (from Latin). Translation: “after noon”. The adverb pm is therefore used for all hours from noon to midnight.

I’ll give you a little mnemonic so you don’t get confused anymore: AM means Before Noon!

Examples of hours in English

Here are some examples to help you understand better:

Time	Expression	Audio
6h30	It’s 6.30 am
7h30	It’s 7.30 am
8h30	It’s 8.30 am
8h45	It’s 8.45 am
13h	It’s 1 pm
13h30	It’s 1.30 pm
14h	It’s 2 pm
15h30	It’s 3.30 pm
16h30	It’s 4.30 pm

Did you notice?
In English, we don’t use the letter “h” between the hour and minutes. Instead, English speakers simply use a dot (.).

For example: 9h50 in French becomes 9.50 in English.

AM and PM: not systematic depending on the context

Please note: In English, you don’t always have to say am or pm if it’s clear from the context.

For example:

Example	Explanation	Audio
I wake up every day at 7.30.	No need to specify am because it’s obvious you don’t wake up at 7:30 pm.

Needless to say, you don’t get up at 7:30 every day… unless you work nights.

Example	Explanation	Audio
She always has dinner at 8.15.	Since dinner is in the evening, you don’t need to add pm

Who says dinner says evening; no need to specify pm!

How to tell the time in English in a simple way

What is the easiest way to tell time in English? Just read the numbers from left to right! First, say the hour, then the minutes. All you need is to know how to count from 1 to 59.

Time	Expression	Audio
It’s 8.45	It’s eight forty-five.

Telling time in English: examples

Here are some examples to help you understand better:

Time	Expression	Audio
It’s 4.45	It’s four forty-five
It’s 2.15	It’s two fifteen
It’s 10.38	It’s ten thirty-eight

Be careful! English speakers do not use a 24-hour system like in some other languages. So for 2:15 pm, you would never say It’s fourteen fifteen. Instead, say It’s two fifteen pm.

Specify the exact time or the exact time in English

In English, the word hour means a duration.

Example	Audio
It lasted 2 hours

However, when expressing an exact time, especially when it’s on the hour (with 0 minutes), we use the word o’clock.

Time	Expression	Audio
9:00	It’s 9 o’clock

O’clock: Etymology

The term O’clock is an adverb resulting from the contraction of three small English words: of the clock. This means it refers to the time shown on the clock.

Examples with o’clock

Here are some more examples to help you better understand how to use o’clock in English:

Example	Audio
It’s 10 o’clock.
It’s 4 o’clock.
Go there at 7 o’clock.
The trouble began just after 11 o’clock last night.
I went to sleep, and at 2 o’clock in the morning, I woke up.

How to tell the time in English with the words “half” and “quarter”?

You can tell the time in English by reading the hour and then the minutes, which is perfectly correct. However, just like in other languages, it is more natural to use expressions like “half past” and “quarter past/to.” For this, you only need to know two simple words: half (meaning half an hour) and quarter (meaning a quarter of an hour).

Half and Quarter in English: Minutes before hours

One key difference between English and other languages like French is the order in which you say the minutes and the hours.:

• In French, you say the hour first, then the minutes.
• In English, you say the minutes first, then the hour.

For example, 8.15 is pronounced as quarter past 8 in English: the hour is indicated after the minutes.

Telling Time: Half Hour in English

To say half past the hour in English, you use the phrase half past, which literally means half an hour past the hour.

Let’s see two examples:

Expression in English	Time	Audio
It’s half past 7.	7.30
He stayed from 9 o’clock to half past 3.	3.30

Note: You may also come across the expression half an hour as a duration of time (30 minutes).

Expression in English	Audio
I’ll be back in half an hour.
It only takes me half an hour to get ready in the morning.

Telling Time: Quarter Past in English

To say “a quarter past” the hour in English, use the phrase quarter past, which means 15 minutes past the hour.

Note: You can also use the expression a quarter past instead of just quarter past; both forms are correct.

Let’s see some examples:

Expression in English	Time	Audio
It’s a quarter past 5.	5:15
It’s quarter past 9.	9:15
At a quarter past midnight, he left.	12:15 am
You have to come at quarter past four.	4:15

Past or To: How to Choose?

Expressing half and quarter is very simple in English. But in other cases, telling time in English becomes a bit more detailed with the use of past and to, which indicate how close the time is to the next or previous hour.

Let us immediately take two examples to illustrate:

Example	Time in English	Audio
It’s 8.20	It’s twenty past eight
It’s 9.40	It’s twenty to ten

When to Use Past or To:

To define whether to use past or to, think of the clock as being split into two halves:

• before the half-hour (from 0 to 30 minutes), use past.
• after the half-hour (from 30 to 0 minutes), use to.

Past: Before the half-hour

For times between 0 and 30 minutes, use the formula: minutes + past + current hour.

Example	Time in English	Audio
8.25	It’s twenty-five past eight
9.12	It’s twelve past nine
10.07	It’s seven past ten

To: After the half-hour

For times between 30 and 0 minutes, use the formula: minutes + to + next hour.

In English, as in other languages, the time refers to how many minutes until the next hour. For example, instead of saying “7:40,” you would say “It’s twenty to eight”, just like saying “twenty minutes before 8” in other languages; we will simply say how many minutes are left before the next hour.

Example	Time in English	Audio
3.50	It’s ten to four
7.40	It’s twenty to eight
8.35	It’s twenty-five to nine

Beware of a small exception: Quarter To

When it’s 15 minutes to the next hour, you don’t say fifteen to. Instead, use the word quarter. For example, 3:45 becomes It’s quarter to four, not It’s fifteen to four.

Diagram: Time in English

O’clock, to, past, quarter, half: To understand when to use each, memorize the diagram below!

12 am or 12 pm: noon or midnight?

It’s easy to get confused when reading the time in English: 12 pm refers to noon or midday, while 12 am refers to midnight (the start of a new day, 0h).

To avoid confusion between 12 pm and 12 am, you can use midday or noon for 12 pm (with noon being more common in everyday language), and midnight for 12 am.

Here are some examples with noon or midday:

Example	Audio
The heat at midday can be really exhausting.
Midday sun is the most dangerous.
Let’s have lunch on Wednesday noon.
From noon onwards, we’re on holidays.

And here are some examples with midnight:

Example	Audio
It was well after midnight by the time we went back to our flat.
The gates were locked at midnight.

Talking about time: expressions to know in English

To ask for the time or talk about hours in English, there are a few key expressions and phrases to know. The most common expression is What time is it?

There are other words and expressions in the English language related to time, such as See you later, time zone, clock, minute hand, or even jet lag. How do you use these terms?

What time is it in English?

To ask about the time in English, you can use two common phrases:

• What time is it? (more formal)
• What’s the time? (a little more familiar)

At what time… in English?

At what time is used to ask when something happened in English.

Example	Audio
At what time is your appointment?

To find out the end time of an event, use Until when.

Example	Audio
Until when will you go to school?

See you later in English

The phrase see you later in English is used to say goodbye in a casual way when you expect to see the person again soon or later the same day. It’s a friendly and informal way to end a conversation or interaction.

Just now and a bit earlier

The phrase just now in English is used to refer to something that happened a very short time ago, moments before the present. It emphasizes that the event or action occurred recently, within the immediate past. Example: I saw him just now.

We can also use a bit earlier to refer to something that happened slightly before the present moment, but not necessarily as recently as just now. It implies that the event happened earlier in the same day or conversation, though with a bit more time having passed.

Example: I saw him a bit earlier.

Soon: a little later

The word soon is used to mean a little later or in the near future. It suggests that something will happen after a short period of time, though the exact timing can vary depending on context.

Example: I’ll call you soon.

You can also replace it with the following:

• in a while
• a bit later on
• a bit later
• shortly
• in a bit (a little more familiar)

See you later!

When saying goodbye and expecting to see the person soon, you can say:

• see you in a while!
• see you in a bit!

For a more informal or familiar tone, you can also say:

• later!
• laters!

Time-Related Words in English

When learning to tell time in English, it’s helpful to know not just how to say the time but also the names of objects, periods of time, and concepts related to it. Below are some key terms.

Objects related to time

Object	Explanation	Audio
watch	A device worn on the wrist to tell time
analog watch	A watch with a traditional, non-digital display
clock	A device that hangs on the wall or stands on a surface to tell time
analog clock	A clock with a traditional, non-digital display
chronometer or stopwatch or timer	A device used to measure short intervals of time
alarm clock	A device to wake you up at a set time
Pendulum clock	A clock that uses a swinging weight to keep time
hourglass	A device that measures time with flowing sand
sundial	A device that uses the sun’s shadow to tell time
second hand	The hand on a clock that measures seconds
minute hand	The larger hand that measures minutes
hour hand or little hand (more familiar)	The smaller hand that measures hours

Times of the day

Time	Explanation	Audio
morning	The early part of the day, usually from sunrise until noon
lunch	The meal eaten in the middle of the day
afternoon	The part of the day after noon and before evening
tea-time	A small meal or snack typically eaten in the late afternoon.
evening	The later part of the day, from around sunset until night
night	The period when it is dark and people usually sleep

Days (which always start with a capital letter!)

Day	Explanation	Audio
Monday	The first day of the workweek
Tuesday	The second day of the workweek
Wednesday	The middle of the workweek
Thursday	The fourth day of the workweek
Friday	The last day of the workweek
Saturday	The first day of the weekend
Sunday	The second day of the weekend
days	Refers to all the days together
week	Refers to the seven-day cycle starting from Monday or Sunday

The months (which always start with a capital letter!)

Month	Explanation	Audio
January	The first month of the year
February	The second month of the year
March	The third month of the year
April	The fourth month of the year
May	The fifth month of the year
June	The sixth month of the year
July	The seventh month of the year
August	The eighth month of the year
September	The ninth month of the year
October	The tenth month of the year
November	The eleventh month of the year
December	The twelfth month of the year

The seasons

Season	Explanation	Audio
spring	The season of new growth and flowers, usually from March to May
summer	The warmest season, usually from June to August
autumn	The season when leaves fall, usually from September to November
winter	The coldest season, usually from December to February

Miscellaneous

Phrase	Explanation	Audio
time difference	The difference in time between two places
to be jet-lagged or jetlagged (American English)	Feeling tired or disoriented after changing time zones (due to travel)
time zone	A region of the globe that has the same standard time