How to Tell Time in Spanish: The Ultimate Guide

¡Hola! Telling the time is an important skill, so we’ve given you a complete guide on how to do it in Spanish, split into handy sections. Sit back, relax, and let’s learn how to tell time in Spanish!

Let’s get started with the basics. 

*in this article, we’ve used the “th” sound that you’d find in words like “think” or “thanks,” but in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world, including most of Latin America, the “th” sound will be replaced with a “s” sound as in “seaside.”

From 16 onward, things start to look a bit more logical. All you need to remember is that “y” (pronounced ee) means “and.”

Example: 17 => 10 + 7 => ten and seven => diez y siete => diecisiete

Then we get to 20, or “veinte.” Instead of pronouncing “veinte-ee-uno,” we mush it all together, making the word flow better: “veintiuno.”

Example: 27 => 20 + 7 => twenty and seven => veinte y siete => veintisiete

At this point, we stop mushing things together. It’s simply ‘tens’ y ‘units.’ You’ve probably got to grips with the pattern by now, but here they all are laid out just in case:

*You might also hear “¿qué horas son?” in some parts of Latin America, but overall it’s less commonly used than “¿qué hora es?”.

To respond to this question, we use the verb “ser” (“to be”). Instead of x o’clock, Spanish speakers count hours.

Example: Son las 8 => it is 8 (hours) => it is 8 o’clock.

Usually, you’ll need to use “son las...” (sohn lahs)  to mean “it is” but occasionally you use “es la” (ehs lah). This is because “son las” is used for plural times, i.e. anything bigger than 1 o’clock. “Es la” is singular, so it’s used for 1 o’clock (and x minutes past 1).

How to Say o’clock in Spanish

So, let’s have a look at the following times:

Usually, when we say “it’s 12 o’clock,” we know whether it’s the middle of the day or the middle of the night by, like, seeing if it’s dark outside. But sometimes we prefer to make it extra clear:

When it’s half past the hour, we use “y media,” (ee ’meh-dee-ah) which means “and half.” See if these examples make sense:

To say that it’s quarter past the hour, we add “y cuarto” (ee ’kwahr-toh), which means “and quarter.”

Makes sense, right?!

Like in English, we can still use the word for “quarter,” but this time we say “menos cuarto” (’meh-nohs ’kwahr-toh) meaning “minus quarter.” So, we’re taking a quarter away from the hour that we’re approaching. For instance:

Some countries will use these versions instead to mean the same thing:

“Falta un cuarto para las x.”

“Es cuarto para las x.”

For highly specific numbers (i.e. not quarters or halves), we have a pretty simple rule! We just say the “o’clock” bit and then say “y” (“and”) and add the number of minutes past the hour! This will become clearer once we’ve seen some examples.

And for minutes to the hour, you guessed it, we use “menos” (’meh-nohs). Simple, right?

If you’ve got all that, and want to know some extra vocab on how to tell time in Spanish (that will make you sound super native), take a look at these:

* You might also hear “y pico,” which is understood as “a few minutes past” in some places, but in other countries, it could refer to anything up to around 50 minutes past the hour.

Depending on where you’re from, you may be more used to the 12-hour clock than the 24-hour clock (military time). In Spanish-speaking destinations, you could encounter both. Like in English, spoken Spanish tends to use the 12-hour clock, even if the time is sometimes written in the 24-hour format. 

For example, if you were reading out theater times, the page in front of you might say “15:00,” but you’d say to your friend on the phone, “it starts at 3.”

It’s time (see what I did there?) for a mini-test!

Use the guide we’ve given you and see if you can figure out what the following phrases mean.

1. Es la una.

2. Es mediodía.

3. Son las tres y media.

4. Son las cuatro y cuarto.

5. Son las siete menos cuarto.

6. Son las ocho y diez.

7. Son las nueve menos cinco.

8. Son las once en punto.

9. Son las once de la mañana.

Whether you’ve struggled with telling time in Spanish or found it pretty easy, practicing Spanish daily will help you get to grips with telling the time.

Numbers are used often in everyday life, so the more you speak, the more opportunity you’ll get to practice them! If you know any native Spanish-speakers, try and practice what you’ve learnt with them.

¡Buena suerte!