How to tell the time and date in English | English Time Ask Elo

Asked by @ Toqeer Abbas (Community Leaner)

How to tell the time and date in English | English Time Ask Elo

Answered by @ Elo Kasia

Elo Kasia is the English Mentor for  ” English Grammar and Speaking Academy” ,  Join now.

How to tell the time and date | English time ask elo

Question Time: How to tell the time and date | English Time Ask Elo

  @ Toqeer Abbas, Thank you for your question.

  As usual, I will try to explain the difference using simple language and plenty of examples.

This week we have been talking about various time expressions used with different tenses and prepositions used with time expressions.

Today, we will look at how to tell the time and date, as many beginner students find it difficult.

When you tell the time in English, the hours always come first. If you look at the clock and see that it is 3:00 p.m., then you can say “It is three” or “The time is three o’clock.” It is that simple!

Remember that when you are talking about just the hour, and no minutes, then you will often use “o’clock.”

The question to ask is “What time is it?” or “What is the time?”

• “Sir, do you know what time it is now?” or “Could you please tell me the time?”
• “It is twelve o’clock.”

Of course, when we talk about the past, we change the tense:

• “What time shall we meet? Let’s meet at 3 o’clock.” (Future)
• “What time did the party finish? It finished at 10 p.m.” (Past)

In spoken English, we use 12-hour, not 24-hour clock. Instead, to make clear if we mean morning or afternoon/evening we use a.m. or p.m.

These words are abbreviations for the Latin terms “ante meridiem” and “post meridiem,” which mean before midday (a.m.) and after midday (p.m.)   We don’t say “It’s 17.00”. We say “It’s 5 p.m.”

Half past For 30 minutes (which is half of an hour), we use half past:

• 7.30 = It’s half past seven.
• 3.30 = It’s half past three.
• A quarter to/ a quarter past

For 15 minutes, we use a quarter

• 10.45 = It’s a quarter to eleven.
• 6.15 = It’s a quarter past six.

For 5, 10,20,25 minutes we use to and past.

• 2.05 = It’s five past two.
• 3.35 = It’s twenty-five to four.

Telling the date correctly, For dates in spoken English, we always use ordinal numbers, i.e. THE fourTH OF July, not four of July.   Ordinal numbers = Numbers that show the order or sequence.

Normally a -TH appears at the end of the number. e.g. seven … seventh. Some ordinal numbers are irregular:

• 1 – first
• 2 – second
• 3 – third
• 4 – fourth
• 5 – fifth
• 6 – sixth, 7-th and so on

For numbers over 20, only the second number is ordinal, so:

• 21 – twenty first
• 24 – twenty fourth
• 32 – thirty first

In spoken English we ALWAYS use ordinal numbers for dates. However, in written English you may write a normal (cardinal) number without the -TH or -ST etc. after it.

Order of days and months when saying the date

• 25 December = say: twenty-fifth of December (more common in the UK) or December twenty-fifth (more common in the US)

How to say the year

• 1987 = nineteen eighty-seven
• 2019 = twenty nineteen

How can you ask for the date in English?

• The main ways of asking the date are:

What day is it today?

• People will probably respond with a day of the week (It’s Friday) or the number (It’s the 28th).

What date is it?

• People may give you the number (It’s the 28th) or the day/month (It’s 28th of June or June 28th)They will not answer with a day of the week.

What is the date (today)? OR What is today’s date? This is another way where you will get a number as an answer.

• The response to your question will most likely start with…
• The date is …
• The date today is …
• Today is…
• It is… (most common)

It is important to learn these expressions if you want to become fluent. It is often important to be able to understand the dates and times as well as say them. You might need them for arranging a meeting, booking a room, giving information on a form, etc.

Try to use these expressions every day, i.e. say to yourself “what date is it”, “what time is it”, “what time you do specific things” and so on. I hope that our exercise will help you master this topic.

Elo Kasia is the Community Mentor for ” English Grammar and Speaking Academy“.

Director at Eloquent Learning Online School www.eloquentlearning.com.