Telling the time in Spanish is quite simple. We ask “¿Qué hora es?” when we want to know the time.

To answer we use the verb “ser” and cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3, 4…).

We use the third person singular form “es” for when it’s “la una” (one o’clock) and the plural form “son” for the rest of the hours.

We always use the feminine article (“la” and “las”) before the hour because the word hour (“la hora”) is feminine in Spanish.

Important: “tiempo” means time (in general) and weather in Spanish, and we don’t use it to ask what time it is. 

We add the minutes to the hour with “y” (and) or “con” (with).

To indicate it’s on the hour we use the expression “en punto”:

To indicate it’s a quarter past the hour we use the phrase “y cuarto”:

To indicate it’s half past the hour we use the expression “y media”:

To indicate that we have some minutes until the next hour we use the phrase “para”:

We also use expressions like “en la mañana” (in the morning), “en la noche” (in the evening / at night) to specify the time of day:

When we want to say that something occurs or will occur at a specific time we use: a + la(s) + time

*In Spanish it’s also perfectly correct to say the time like this:

Now you’re ready to test your knowledge with the following quizzes on how to tell the time in Spanish.

In this post, you’ve learned how to tell the time in Spanish.  If you haven’t seen our lesson on Numbers, you should check that out to review them.  Now that you’ve mastered telling time, you can go on to learn the Days of the week, months, seasons, and other time expressions in Spanish.  Also, it’s worth reviewing the Verb “Ser” if you’re not familiar with this verb yet.