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Day 11 of 90

Telling the time

Clock time, and arranging to meet. About 10 minutes. Grammar: es la una, son las dos.

Spanish tells the time with the verb ser and a feminine plural article that refers to a word nobody says out loud. Once you see what is hiding, the whole thing is regular.

The hour

One is singular, everything else is plural.

es la unait is one o'clockSingular, because it is one hour.
son las dosit is two o'clockPlural from two onwards. son, not es.
son las diezit is ten o'clock
¿qué hora es?what time is it?Singular es, always, even though the answer is usually plural.
Why it works this way

The hidden word is horas. son las dos is really son las dos horas, it is two hours, and hora is feminine, which is why the article is la and las rather than el and los. Nobody says horas, but every part of the sentence is still agreeing with it. This is why the article looks unattached to anything.

Minutes

Add past the hour, subtract to the next one.

son las tres y diezit is ten past threey is and. Use it up to the half hour.
son las tres y mediait is half past threemedia, feminine, agreeing with the invisible hora.
son las cuatro menos cuartoit is quarter to fourmenos is minus. Spanish counts down from the next hour.
son las tres y cuartoit is quarter past threecuarto is a quarter. Note it is masculine here.
Why it works this way

menos means minus, so las cuatro menos cuarto is four minus a quarter. English says quarter to four and names the hour you are heading for, and so does Spanish, which makes this easier than it looks. In much of Latin America you will also hear faltan quince para las cuatro, fifteen are missing until four, which does the same arithmetic out loud.

Arranging to meet

The preposition changes when you move from what time it is to what time something happens.

a las ochoat eighta for an appointment. son las ocho is it is eight, a las ocho is at eight.
de la mañana, de la tarde, de la nochein the morning, afternoon, eveningUsed with a specific time. The twenty four hour clock is normal in writing.
¿a qué hora?at what time?The question that pairs with a las.
en puntoon the dotson las cinco en punto, exactly five.
Why it works this way

por la mañana is in the morning in general, and de la mañana is in the morning attached to a stated hour. So trabajo por la mañana but a las ocho de la mañana. Choosing between them is not about politeness or region, it is about whether a number is present.

ahorita does not mean now

In Mexico and much of Central America ahorita is the diminutive of ahora, now, and it can mean in a moment, later today, or in principle at some point. ahora mismo is right now and is the phrase to use when you mean it. Reading ahorita as immediately is one of the most reliable sources of missed appointments for English speakers.

Carry these forward

Four lines from today that later days assume you know.

¿qué hora es?what time is it?
son las tres y mediait is half past three
a las ochoat eight
¿a qué hora?at what time?

Check yourself

Eight questions. Finishing them marks the day done.

Question 1 of 8

It is one o'clock is

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