Telling the time

There are two common ways of telling the time.

1) Informal: Say the hour first and then the minutes. (Hour + Minutes)

• 6:25 - It's six twenty-five
• 8:05 - It's eight O-five (the O is said like the letter O)
• 9:11 - It's nine eleven
• 2:34 - It's two thirty-four

2) Formal: Say the minutes first and then the hour.  (Minutes + PAST / TO + Hour)

For minutes 1-30 we use PAST after the minutes.

For minutes 31-59 we use TO after the minutes.

• 2:35 - It's twenty-five to three
• 11:20 - It's twenty past eleven
• 4:18 - It's eighteen past four
• 8:51 - It's nine to nine
• 2:59 - It's one to three

When it is 15 minutes past the hour we normally say: quarter past

• 7:15 - It's quarter past seven

When it is 15 minutes before the hour we normally say: quarter to

• 12:45 - It's quarter to one

When it is 30 minutes past the hour we normally say: half past

• 3:30 - It's half past three (but we can also say three-thirty)

O'clock: We use o'clock when there are NO minutes.

• 10:00 - It's ten o'clock
• 5:00 - It's five o'clock
• 1:00 - It's one o'clock

12:00: For 12:00 there are four expressions in English.

• twelve o'clock 
• midday = noon 
• midnight