Telling Time

Let's learn how to ask for and tell the time in German.

There are a few key expressions and words to memorize, but once you've learned them, you'll be ready to schedule meetings and make appointments with ease!

Numbers

For this lesson, you'll need to know the German numbers from 1-60. If you need a quick refresher, you can revisit the previous lesson on numbers. Otherwise, let's continue!

1. Telling Time: Important Vocabulary

First, here are some important time-related words:

die Uhrclock
die Zeittime
die Uhrzeittime of day

You might use them like this:

Ich habe keine Zeit!I don't have time
Die Uhrzeit passt mir.This time suits me.
Kannst du mir die Uhrzeit sagen?Can you tell me the time?

Zeit vs. Uhrzeit

Die Uhrzeit refers to clock time, while die Zeit can also mean the passage of time or a general period of time.

Okay, great 🎉. Let's continue.

2. How To Ask For The Time

Now, let's learn how to ask for the time, using the words we have just learned.

Wieviel Uhr ist es?What time is it?
Wie spät ist es?How late is it?
Können Sie mir die Uhrzeit sagen?Do you have the time? (formal)

The German word Uhr does not only refer to a clock (object), but also to o'clock. With this in mind, Wie viel Uhr ist es? literally means: How much o'clock is it?

Now, let's focus on telling the time in German.

3. How To Read The Clock

1. To the hour

To tell the time to the hour, you simply need the word Uhr:

Es ist neun Uhr.It is nine o'clock
Es ist acht Uhr.It is eight o'clock.
Es ist ein Uhr.It is one o'clock.

In German, there's no AM or PM, but you can use words like morgens and mittags to specify the time of day.

morgensin the morning
mittagsat / around noon
nachmittagsin the afternoon
abendsin the evening

These words may be used like so:

Es ist sieben Uhr morgens.It is two o'clock in the morning.
Es ist zehn Uhr abends.It is ten o'clock in the evening.
Es ist zwei Uhr mittags.It is two o'clock in the afternoon.

The German language also uses the 24-hour clock. For example:

Es ist sieben Uhr.It is 7am.
Es ist zweiundzwanzig Uhr.It is 10pm.
Es ist vierzehn Uhr.It is 2pm.

What time are the clocks below describing?

Click on the grey bars, to reveal the correct answers.

It is two o'clock.

It is nine o'clock.

It is five o'clock.

One more helpful word to learn here is gegen, which means around or about when referring to time.

gegenaround

For example:

Ich komme gegen 7 Uhr vorbei.I'll come by around 7 o'clock.
Gegen 8 Uhr müssen wir los.Around 8 o'clock we have to leave.

This is useful when you're giving an approximate time rather than an exact one.

Well done! 🎉

You now know how to tell the time to the hour.

Now, let's get a little more specific with time.

2. To the half hour

In English, we say half past two to refer to 2:30. But in German, halb zwei actually means 1:30, because it literally translates to half of two o'clock. Think of it as being halfway to two.

So, the most intuitive way to understand halb zweiis to imagine it as two o'clock minus half an hour.

Halb zwei → half of two o-clock → half past one

When telling the time to the half-hour, we use the 12-hour clock. For example: Es ist halb elf(It's 10:30).

Here are some illustrations of a clock telling the time. What times are being shown here?

Click on the grey bars, to reveal the correct answers.

It is half past seven.

It is half past eleven.

It is half past three.

3. To the quarter hour

Next, for times like 10:15 or 10:45, we use nach (after) and vor (before), just like past and to in English.

vorto
nachafter
viertelquarter

We may use these words like so:

Es ist viertel nach eins.It is quarter past one.
Es ist viertel vor neun.It is quarter to nine.

Numbers

When telling the time to the quarter hour, we read the time as measured in 12 hours. So, 10:15pm would be read as viertel nach zehn and not as viertel nach zweiundzwanzig.

Here are some more illustrations of a clock telling the time. What times are being shown here?

Click on the grey bars, to reveal the correct answers.

It is quarter to five.

It is quarter past one.

It is quarter past ten.

4. To the minute

Lastly, we may also tell the time to the minute:

Es ist ein Uhr dreißig.It is one-thirty.
Es ist zwanzig Uhr fünfzehn.It is eight-fifteen.
Es ist zwei Uhr fünfundvierzig.It is two-forty-five.

We may also use the words vor und nach here, too:

Es ist dreiunddreißig nach drei.It is thirty-three minutes past three.
Es ist sechzehn vor sieben.It is sixteen minutes to seven.
Es ist einundfünfzig nach neun.It is fifty-one minutes past nine.

What times are being shown below?

Click on the grey bars, to reveal the correct answers.

It is nine twelve.

It is four forty-two.

It is eleven thirty-eight.

Well done! 🎉

You've learned how to tell the time in German!

Here are a few more helpful time-related words to remember as you gain confidence.

4. More Words Related to Time

spätlate
frühearly
pünktlichon time
die Sekundesecond
die Minuteminute
die Stundehour
der Morgenmorning
der Mittagnoon
der Nachmittagafternoon
der Abendevening
die Mitternachtmidnight

Great job! 🎉

You've completed this lesson! When you're ready, move on to the next one: Asking Questions.