Conversation Class: Telling the time

Telling the time

To tell the time means to say what the time is, perhaps after somebodyasks the time.

Asking the time

Here are some phrases you can use when you want to know the time:

• What's the time?
• What time is it?
• Have you got the right time?
• What time do you make it?

Telling the time

To tell someone what the time is, we can say "The time is..." or, more usually, "It's...". Here is a typical dialogue:

Question:	What's the time, please?
Answer:	It's three o'clock.

The chart below shows you two different ways to tell someone what the time is.

	more formal	less formal
	It's...	It's...
3.00	three o'clock	three
3.02	just gone three o'clock	three oh two
3.03	three minutes past three	three oh three
3.05	five past three	three oh five
3.09	nine minutes past three	three oh nine
3.10	ten past three	three ten
3.15	a quarter past three	three fifteen
3.20	twenty past three	three twenty
3.21	twenty-one minutes past three	three twenty-one
3.25	twenty-five past three	three twenty-five
3.30	half past three	three thirty
3.35	twenty-five to four	three thirty-five
3.40	twenty to four	three forty
3.45	a quarter to four	three forty-five
3.50	ten to four	three fifty
3.55	five to four	three fifty-five
3.57	three minutes to four	three fifty-seven
3.58	nearly four o'clock	three fifty-eight
4.00	four o'clock	four

Expressing Time in English

Clock game

Clock

Clockworks

What time is it?