1- Telling the time
1.1- Ways of telling the time
Telling the time can be very useful in your daily life, it can help you catch a bus, the subway or even a plane, you need to know what time is it so you won’t be late. What time do you get up? What time do you have lunch? or what time do you go to bed? These are a few questions you can answer by learning how to tell the time.
Excuse me! What time is it, please?
To tell the time in English, we normally say the minutes first and then the hours.
1.2- Examples:
It’s 3:10
It’s ten past three
It’s 8:40
It’s twenty to eight
It’s 10:45
It’s a quarter to eleven
10:00
It’s ten o’clock
6:15
It’s (a) quarter past six
16:30
It’s half past four
11:45
It’s (a) quarter to twelve
1.3- Asking what’s the time:
Excuse me! What time is it, please?
It’s twelve o’clock
What time do you get up?
I get up at five past six
What time do you have lunch?
We have lunch at one o’clock
2- Use of English:
We use at + time when we want to talk about the time of a specific event. Examples:
We have lunch at one o’clock
My English class starts at half past 3.
We use it’s or it is when we want to answer a question that asks about what time is it in that exact moment. Examples:
What time is it? It’s ten o’clock
What’s the time? It is ten past eight.
