Do you know how to ask for the time in English? If so, well done! But, how about learning other ways to express yourself?
What time is it?
What's the time?
Excuse me, have you got the time please?
Sorry, have you got the time?
Could you tell me the time?- (=Você poderia me dizer as horas?
What time do you make it? =Que horas você tem?)
Have a look at some examples:
12:00 a.m = It’s midnight
12:00 p.m = It’s noon / midday
05: 05- It’s five oh five/ It’s five past five.
07:10 - It’s seven ten / It’s ten past seven.
08:15- It’s eight fifteen/ It’s a quarter past eight.
02:30- It’s two thirty/ It’s half past two.
09:45- It’s nine forty-five/ It’s a quarter to ten.
04:40 - It’s four forty/ It’s twenty to five
It’s important to note that we usually don’t say “four past”, or “eight past” – we put in the word minutes there. We say “four minutes past”, “eight minutes past” and we drop minutes with the fives: “five past”, "ten past’ “twenty past”. ‘twenty-five-past”.
Besides that, when we talk about timetables we often use the 24-hour clock. So, we might say that a plane arrives at “eighteen twenty-two”.
Interestingly, we can say “quarter”, instead of “a quarter”, when talk about the time. However, we never say “a half” when we’re talking about time; we say, “half past six”.
Note on prepositions.
What time do you wake up? I wake up at 6 o’clock.
I have English lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays, from five to seven
American Vs British English
American English has some ways of talking about the time that aren’t used in British English: they might say “after” instead of “past” for example.
Now, let’s practise some questions related to the topic, OK? Note that the interrogative pronoun “when” can be used instead of “What time”.
- What time do you wake up?
- When do you go to bed?
- What time do you have breakfast/ lunch/ dinner?
- Are you always on time?
- What do you usually do to kill the time?
- Does your English lesson start at ________ sharp?
- When do the banks open/ close in your country?
- Do you set an alarm clock to wake you up?
- D you set your watch five minutes ahead?
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