“Tell me, what time is it now?” - This is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions. And if they ask you in Russian, you will probably just look at the time and calmly say the number. What if you are asked to tell the time in English? How to respond correctly to a person who is looking at you with an expectant look? Of course, you can not tell the time, but simply point your finger at the clock, but why not learn how to say phrases about time, which will certainly be useful to you. It’s actually not at all difficult to do this, and today you will see for yourself by studying the topic “Time in English table clock”.

How to ask the time in English?

First, let's figure out how to say “what time is it” in English. Typically, for such a question, the following phrases are used that need to be learned:

You can also use the combination "what time" in questions about actions in the past, present and future:

Instead of “what time”, the question word “when” can also be used in a question:

Having figured out how to ask what time it is in English, let's study the possible answers.

Time in English: tables about hours

The question of what time it is in English can be answered in two ways:

1. The first is equivalent to the Russian “fifteen minutes to such and such”, “20 minutes of such and such” and similar time designations. To use this option, you need to learn two time indicators. Let's look at the table of these prepositions with transcription:

Sentences about time must begin with the subject and predicate “it is” (this is), which are often shortened to “it’s”. They are used to construct a sentence, but in translation into Russian, as a rule, they are omitted. After them comes the number of minutes, then one of the time indicators above. The sentence ends with a number indicating the hour. Sometimes the time of day is indicated after the hour:

In general, the construction table looks like this:

Examples:

Perhaps these examples only left you with even more questions. Let's look into them. In the first sentence, you might be confused by the translation, because instead of the indicated ten (ten) in Russian, it’s unclear where “eleven” came from. The fact is that they usually translate the time so that everything sounds clear in Russian. If translated literally, the sentence will sound a little different:

That is, in English they mean that at first it was 10 o’clock, and after that 5 minutes passed. In Russian, as a rule, we believe that it’s already 11 o’clock, and therefore, despite the fact that, in fact, the clock says 10:05, we call the next hour in order.

In the second example, everything seems to be quite logical. However, you may have noticed that unlike the first example, the second example contains the word “minutes.” The fact is that if a sentence mentions numbers that are not multiples of five, the presence of this word is simply necessary. Let's compare:

By the way, speaking of minutes, one cannot fail to mention words that are in some way an exception. In English, as well as in Russian, thirty minutes is called “half”. Therefore, when half of something is meant, the word half is used in the sentence in combination with past, since 30 minutes still refers to the first part of the hour:

Also, English speakers don't usually use the phrases "fifteen minutes" or "fifteen to fifteen." They replace the word fifteen with “quarter”. In English this word is translated as “quarter”. It is used according to standard schemes, but in combination with the indefinite article a:

By the way, mentioning “to” and “too” it is worth noting that students often have doubts about these two words. Their pronunciation is the same, both pronounce the word as.

Note that some examples do not specify times of day. Everything here is very similar to the Russian language. After all, if it is clear from the context that we are talking about evening time, we do not focus on it. It is also worth noting that speech often leaves out everything except the time itself:

Everything seems clear with minutes, but what if we want to name the hour as an integer? In such cases, the word “o’clock” (hour) is added after the number, which can often be omitted. Please note that this word is written with an apostrophe, which in no case should be ignored:

It is not difficult to remember these adverbs, since they often appear in sentences outside of tense phrases.

If you are asked a question about when (what time) this or that event happened or will happen, you need to put the preposition at before the time, which plays the role of the Russian “in”:

If you want to say that an action (will be) done at some time, use the verb “by”:

In both cases, the time “twelve” can be expressed by nouns:

If you need to express that the action lasted from such and such a time to such and such, two prepositions are used at once: from (from) ... to (until) ...:

To say that some action lasted so many hours/minutes, the preposition for (“during”) is used:

Using the preposition in, you can say how long after the action occurred (will happen):

1. But there is a second option, which, perhaps, you will like much more. The English language is rapidly becoming simpler, and therefore, in order not to load sentences with “halves” and “pastes,” one can now increasingly hear this particular way of expressing time. In order to use it you need to know two things:

• English counting to 60
• Time indicators a.m. and p.m.

We still won’t dwell on numbers, but it’s worth talking about pointers, because they often cause difficulties for language learners. In fact, everything is very simple. Both of these abbreviations originate from Latin and mean the following:

• a.m. – time before noon, that is, from 00:00 to 12:00;
• p.m. – time after noon, that is, from 12:00 to 00:00.

As you may have noticed, neither the first nor the second case uses a 24-hour clock. It's simply not common in English-speaking countries. Therefore, you should not ignore these symbols, otherwise you may be misunderstood when using the 12-hour format.

When memorizing them, you can use the following technique: the alphabet begins with the letter a, it symbolizes the beginning. Accordingly, a.m. implies the beginning of a new day, while p.m. its continuation. If this method doesn't work for you, come up with another one, but be sure to learn to distinguish between both pointers.

In principle, no rules are used in the method itself. You just need to name the numbers, but not those that are shown on the dial, but those that can be seen in the corner of your computer desktop, electronic watch and telephone.

If it's clear from the context that you mean morning, afternoon, or evening, you don't have to say the pointers:

Which option to use is up to you. In any case, they will understand you. The only thing is, give preference to the standard option if you need to write the time for any exam papers, because the second method is still less formal and is used exclusively in everyday communication. When writing your paper, consider what kind of English you are taught or what kind of English you are expected to use. Don't forget that instead of "past" and "to" in British, American English uses "after" and "of". Examples:

Seconds are also used to indicate exact time in English:

Numbers are not necessarily written in words. We did this solely for clarity, although the usual use of numbers is also relevant in English.

Time in English table clock: time dictionary

There are other words related to time that can be noted. They usually appear in sentences not to determine time, but knowing these words certainly won’t hurt:

Particular attention should be paid to the word “time”. Despite its importance, « "clock" and "time" in English can sometimes have nothing in common. Thus, “time” is used in questions about time, but in affirmative sentences this word is used independently and cannot name time. That is, despite its meaning “time”, it does not name time itself:

It can also mean "times":

The same can be said about the word “hour”. Despite the fact that in a sentence about time hours are mentioned with minutes and seconds, the word “hour” itself is used only with “for” (“during”) or when indicating the number of hours spent. The word is also often used as part of phraseological units:

That's all. Studying this topic should not give you much difficulty. The main thing is to remember the indicator words. To reinforce the material, complete exercises on the topic and write your own examples. If some information has gone over your head, read this article again, paying attention to all the nuances. And, of course, try to interest yourself, because learning from your own will will not bring pleasure, and therefore no results.

Not a single day goes by without us looking at the clock, telling or asking the time. From this article you will learn how to say time in English, how AM and PM stand for it, and what “military time” is.

Basic English words on the topic “Time”

What are AM and PM?

In English, the day is clearly divided into two periods: AM and PM.

• AM – 00:00 - 12:00 or from midnight (midnight) to noon (midday);
• PM – 12:00 - 00:00 or from noon to midnight.

These abbreviations are not English, but Latin, they stand for ante meridiem(before noon) and post meridiem(afternoon). When naming time, these two abbreviations are often added to make it clear what time of day we are talking about.

A simple way to tell time in English

In Russian, we can call time simply by two numbers without any “twenty to twenty”, “half”, “quarter to” and so on. The same method exists in English.

• 03:15 – Three fifteen (three fifteen).
• 04:35 – Four thirty-five (four thirty-five).

If the exact hour without minutes is specified, then this hour is called + “o’clock”.

• 11:00 – Eleven o’clock (eleven o’clock).
• 10:00 – Ten o’clock (ten o’clock).

In speech, tense sentences are constructed with the formal subject it. According to the rules of grammar, a sentence must have a subject - it formally fulfills this role.

• It is five twenty-five AM. - It's five twenty-five in the morning.
• It's ten thirty PM. - It's ten thirty in the evening.

In our country you can often hear not “six in the evening”, but “eighteen hours”; in America, the 24-hour time format is practically not used in everyday life; it is used mainly by police officers, military personnel, technicians and people of other professions in which accuracy is important. This designation of time is called military time- "war time". By the way, how would you say 17:00 in English? Not seventeen o’clock or seventeen zero zero at all. It will be right seventeen hundred– literally, “seventeen hundred.”

Telling the time in English by the clock

Another, more common, way of saying time is by using expressions like “half past four” instead of “four thirty”, “a quarter to two” instead of “one forty five”, etc.

How this is done is shown in detail in the picture:

We call the exact time without tricks: It's... o'clock:

• It's ten o'clock. - It's ten o'clock now.
• It's four o'clock. - It's four o'clock now.

We call time with 30 minutes using half past(lit.: half after):

• It's half past four. - It's half past four now.
• It's half past one. - It's half past two now.

We call time with 15 minutes using a quarter past(a quarter after) or “a quarter to” (without a quarter):

• It’s a quarter past seven. - It's quarter past seven.
• It's a quarter to nine. - It's a quarter to nine now.

All other time options are indicated using to(without) or past(after).

• It's five past seven. – It’s five minutes past seven (lit.: five after seven).
• It's twenty-five to eleven. – It’s now twenty-five minutes to eleven (lit.: twenty-five to eleven).

Other useful words and expressions on the topic "Time"

One of the difficulties associated with the topic of time in English is the correct use of prepositions in different expressions. Mentions of time in conversations are far from limited to phrases like “It’s half past five.” For beginners, confusion often arises in the expressions “in an hour”, “at nine o’clock”, etc.

You can familiarize yourself with prepositions of time in this collection; below I also provide some template expressions that may be useful to you.

In Russian, by the word day we mean the daylight hours, between morning and evening; in English, the word day means:

1. Day, hour period, from twelve o'clock at night to twelve o'clock the next night;
2. Daylight hours, between morning and evening;
3. The time you usually spend at work or school is the workday.

The word day, depending on the context, can have the following translation into Russian: day, day, working day; day, and in more rare cases: significant day, period of time, period of life.

Context

In some cases, electricity is available for only a few hours a day. - In some cases, electricity is supplied only for a few hours a day.

In addition, they had running water 24 hours a day. - In addition, tap water is supplied there around the clock.

It took us almost a day to get here. - It took us almost a day to get here.

January has 31 days. - There are 31 days in January.

These animals sleep during the day and hunt at night. - These animals sleep during the day and hunt at night.

We"re having to work a six-day week to cope with demand. “We have to work six days a week to cope with demand.”

She"s taking three days off next week. - Next week she has three days off.

The word night in English can mean:

1. It is dark time of day;
2. The period of time between the beginning of sunset and the moment you go to bed;
3. An evening on which a special event occurs; Festive evening, party.

It gets cold at night. - It gets cold at night.

Let's go out on Saturday night. - Let's go somewhere on Saturday evening.

When"s the last night of your show? - When is the last night of your show?

The opening night of her new movie was a great success. - The premiere of her new film was a great success.

Opening night - Premiere, opening night

Parts of the day

Dawn- Dawn
This is the time when the sun rises or comes up (sunrise). - This is the time when the sun rises (sunrise).

Morning- Morning
This is the time from midnight to midday. - This time is from midnight to noon.

Midday- Noon
This is the middle of the day, also called “Noon” (12:00 hours). - This is the middle of the day, also called "noon" (12:00 o'clock).

Afternoon- Afternoon
This is the time from midday (noon) to evening. From 12:00 hours to approximately 18:00 hours. - This time is from noon to evening. From 12:00 to 18:00.

Evening- Evening
This is the time from the end of the afternoon to midnight. From approximately 18:00 hours to 00:00 hours. - This is the time from the end of the day until midnight. From approximately 18:00 to 00:00 hours.

Dusk- Twilight
This is the time when the sun sets or goes down (sunset). - This is the time when the sun sets (sunset).

Midnight- Midnight
This is the middle of the night (00:00 hours). - It's the middle of the night (00:00 hours).

Usage examples

Sentences and phrases in English with Russian translation, on the topic: Parts of the day.

She has guitar lessons Sunday morning. - She has a guitar lesson on Sunday morning.

You can have morning lessons, 15 hours per week, or morning and afternoon lessons, 25 hours a week. - You can study in the morning, which is 15 lessons per week, or in the morning and afternoon - 25 lessons per week.

From Monday 5 January to Wednesday 8 April 2018, end of morning lessons. - From Monday, January 5 to Wednesday, January 8, 2018, after morning classes.

The four morning lessons focus on the main areas of language learning: grammar and language work, reading and listening, communicative activities and speaking practice. - The four morning lessons focus on the main areas of language learning: grammar and language work, reading and listening, communicative activities and speaking practice.

Group lessons mixed running in mornings or afternoons, September to June (maximum 16 people). - Mixed group lessons run in the morning or afternoon, from September to June (maximum 16 people).

Time is a relative concept. And the more we think about it, the more often we come to the conclusion that people invented time periods for convenience.

But physicists have long understood that time does not exist; there is a coordinate system that helps us navigate in time, for example, to be on time for work or not to miss a favorite movie. Scientists from the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have long informed everyone that their ultra-precise clocks do not measure time, time is determined by marks on the clock. And it is thanks to such marks that each of us can organize our day by planning all our affairs, otherwise chaos would befall us.

The inhabitants of Ancient Babylon started talking about time, whose sacred numbers were 12 and 60. This is how the division of the day into 2 by 12 hours appeared, and 60 minutes appeared in an hour. However, we note that throughout the world the time system consists of 24 hours.

The time of day in English is quite easy to remember. You won’t find the word “day” among the British; they often say day or twenty-four hours. So, twenty-four hours are divided into day And night(day and night). Used to indicate time a.m. (ante meridiem) – before noon, and also p.m. (post meridiem) - afternoon. Accordingly, if you want to schedule a meeting at 8 pm, you must indicate this moment by indicating two letters ( p.m.) after the number 8. Remember that the countdown a.m. starts at midnight ( midnight), i.e. from 00.00, and ends at 12.00 at noon ( midday or noon).

If you want to say "good morning" ( Good morning), you can safely use this expression from 6 a.m. to noon. From 12 noon to 6 p.m. it will be important to express your wishes for a good day ( Good afternoon). From 18.00 to 00.00 you can safely say “good evening” ( Good evening). Let us also note an interesting point that the time from midnight to 6 am is the time when we sleep. However, despite this, when we meet a person during this period of time, we still have to say “ Good morning!”.

Expression " Good night” is used only if you say goodbye to a person and go to bed, wishing him good night. But remember that “ Good night” can also be used as an interjection in colloquial speech, meaning “My God!”

Good night! Must you chew that gum so loud? - Oh my God! Can't you chew gum more quietly?

There are also a number of idioms in which the words “evening”, “afternoon”, “night” can be traced, for example:

In the afternoon of life, when his powers began to fail, he turned to an easier field of endeavor. “In his declining years, when his strength was no longer the same, he began to do lighter work.

In the afternoon of one's life- in his declining years

In the north of England and Scotland there is an expression “afternoon tea”, which means an early dinner with tea.

When you come home from work, you can call your friends and say “ I have a night off“I have a free evening. If you decide to go to a disco in the evening and spend the whole night there, you can say “ I had a perfect night out” – I had a great time away from home.

Night out- a night spent away from home

A popular expression also remains “ yesterevening" - last night.

Learn English and always keep up with the times!