Asking and telling the time

Asking the time

You can ask the time in any of the following ways:

~ What’s the time?

~ What time is it?

~ What time is it now?

~ Do you know what time it is?

~ Could you tell me the time, please?

~ Excuse me, what’s the time?

~ Excuse me, what time is it, please?

~ Have you got time?

~ Do you have the time?

These expressions are used to ask somebody the time when you are not sure whether they have a watch or not.

When you know that somebody has a watch and you think your own watch does not have the right time, you can say the following:

~ What time do you make it?

~ What time do you have?

Telling the time

A complete hour can be told in the following ways:

~ It’s 2.

~ It’s 9 o’clock.

~ It’s 7 in the morning.

~ It’s 9 in the evening.

~ It’s 4 in the afternoon.

~ It’s 9 a.m.

~ It’s 4 p.m.

You can say:

~ It’s 12 o’clock.  OR  It’s noon.  OR  It’s twelve noon.

~ It’s 12 o’clock.  OR  It’s midnight. (at night)

An hour and a half is expressed by the words half past.

~ It’s half past 9.

~ It’s half past 7 in the morning.

~ It’s half past 9 in the evening.

Remember, we use o’clock for the hour only. It’s not used after half past, etc.

Fifteen minutes past an hour is expressed by the words quarter past.

~ It’s quarter past 9.

~ It’s quarter past 7 in the morning.

~ It’s quarter past 9 in the evening.

Americans say quarter after instead.

When it is the next hour after fifteen minutes, we express it by quarter to.

~ It’s quarter to 9.

~ It’s quarter to 7 in the morning.

~ It’s quarter to 9 in the evening.

Americans say quarter of instead.

Some minutes after an hour can be expressed in the following ways:

~ It’s twenty past one.  OR  It’s one twenty.

~ It’s five past twelve.  OR  It’s twelve-oh-five.

Here is how we can summarize it all.

The time after half past an hour can be expressed in the following way:

~ It’s seven forty.  OR  It’s twenty to eight.

In case of any confusion, say the hour and then the minutes:

~ It’s nine fifty-two.

For an exact time, the expressions bang on and dead on are used informally.

~ We were there dead on eight.

~ We will join you bang on nine.

Read also:

Telling the date

Time expressions