Asking for The Time
Before we can talkabout expressing time, we have to talk about asking for the currenttime. There are three main ways to ask for the current time:
Wie spät ist es? (literally: how late is it?)
Wieviel Uhr haben wir? (literally: what time do we have?)
Wieviel Uhr ist es? (What time is it?)
And if you are politely asking a stranger on the street for the time:
Entschuldigen Sie, können sie mir bitte sagen, wieviel Uhr es ist?
Excuse me, can you tell me the time please?
Enschuldigen Sie bitte, wie viel Uhr haben wir?
Excuse me please, what time is it?
Ok now that we areon the same page, we can dive directly into expressing the time inGerman.
Informal
Of course there arecasual and formal ways to express the current time. In informalGerman, you will often hear things like a quarter to and half past.(there is both a half past and “half before” in German).
Germans basicallyuse 10,20,30 and 40 minutes to describe time in a casual way (we willlook at this later)
The Full Hour
If you are talkingabout the full hour, you have to use the German equivalent for“o’clock”, which is Uhr. As in English, you speak the numberand add Uhr after it:
Ein Uhr – 1 Uhr – 1 o’clock
Fünf Uhr – 5 Uhr – 5 o’clock
Acht Uhr – 8 Uhr – 8 o’clock
Zwei Uhr – 2 Uhr – 2 o’clock
As you can see thisis similar to English and therefore pretty easy. Let’s have a lookat how you would answer if someone is asking you for the time.
Excuse me, what time is it?
Entschuldigen Sie bitte, wie spät ist es?
It is 7 o’clock.
Es ist 7 Uhr.
So the answerfollows the structure “Es ist [Number] Uhr”. Pretty simple.Germans usually use the 12 hour clock if it isn’t a formalconversation, or you are not making an appointment.
Exact Time
The exact time inGerman follows the same pattern as the full hour. Firstly you mentionthe hours, followed by Uhr, and lastly you mention the minutes. Thiscan happen in 12 or 24hour format, it really doesn’t matter whichformat you use. Sometimes Germans will use the word und (=and)between Uhr and the minutes and mention the word Minuten after thenumer of minutes., so don’t get confused by that.
Let’s look at someexamples to understand both forms:
1:55 – 1Uhr 55 – 1Uhr und 55 Minuten
3:43 – 3Uhr 43 – 3Uhr und 43 Minuten
5:24 – 5Uhr 24 – 5Uhr und 24 Minuten
8:17 – 8Uhr 17 – 8Uhr und 17 Minuten
When deciding whichform you would like to use, it really comes down to your ownpreferences. Germans usually like to use the first one more often,since its quicker and requires less words. (We like to be efficient)
A Quarter, Half Past, And Other Things
Quarter
In English we areable to say: It’s a quarter past eight and in German, we are ableto do the same.
A quarter translatesto ein Viertel so in German we say:
Es ist Viertel nach acht (8).
It’s a quarter past eight.
There is another wayto say this, which is mainly used in the South of Germany. For aquarter past eight, you would say: (only in the South)
Es ist viertel neun (9).
It is a quarter past eight.
You can imagine thisas: a quarter of the ninth hour has passed. Don’t worry if thisconfuses you right now. For now, focus on the word “nach” and“vor”, to determine what time is being talked about.
So now that welearned how to say this, let’s look at how we would say: a quarterto eleven.
If you understoodthe previous example, this will be a piece of cake for you.
We only have tochange one small thing. We will switch the word nach, which literallytranslates to after, with vor, which literally translates to before.
Es ist Viertel vor elf. (11)
It is a quarter to eleven.
Ok, this isn’thard. Let’s look at how the people in the South of Germany wouldsay it.
Es ist drei viertel elf (11).
It is a quarter to eleven.
As you can see, inthe South, we just keep adding quarters, until we would reach eleven.(drei viertel = three quarters).
Let’s look at somemore examples so that you understand the difference between the Northand the South.
Es ist Viertel vor zwölf (12).
It is a quarter to twelve.
Es ist Viertel nach sieben (7).
It is a quarter past seven.
Es ist viertel sieben (7).
It is a quarter past six.
Es ist Viertel vor zehn (10).
It is a quarter to ten.
Es ist drei viertel neun (9).
It is a quarter to nine.
When writing downthe time like this, you have to pay attention to capitalization. Ifyou use the standard way to tell the time with “Viertel nach” and“Viertel vor”, “Viertel” will be capitalized since it is usedas a noun.
If you want to write down the time using the other form, you will not capitalize the word “viertel” because it is used as a “Zahlwort” (literally number word). You can find more information about this on the website of the German Duden. “Viertel” “viertel”
Germans Don’t Use Half Past
Now that we knowabout quarters, we are ready to take a look at how Germans phrase“half past”.
In German, we do itexactly the other way around. We don’t say half past, we say justhalb (=half) but we mean “half to”.
If you want to sayhalf past, you only need two things, the number of the next hour, andthe word halb.
Let’s look at someexamples:
It is half past twelve.
Es ist halb eins (1).
It is half past two.
Es ist halb drei (3).
It is half past eight.
Es ist halb neun (9).
Pretty easy right?This is the same for all parts of Germany. We don’t have somethinglike “zwei viertel neun”. So people in the South of Germany useonly “viertel” and “drei viertel” and in between they sayhalb.
Other Things We Use in Germany
On top of “halfpast” and “a quarter” it is common practice in German to use“5/10/20minutes past/before”
This works the sameway as “Viertel vor” or “Viertel nach”. You just have tosubstitute “Viertel” by the number which you want to use.
Some Examples:
It is ten minutes past three.
Es ist zehn nach drei
It is twenty minutes past one.
Es ist zwanzig nach eins.
It is five minutes past two.
Es ist fünf nach zwei.
It is twenty minutes to four.
Es ist zwanzig vor vier.
It is ten minutes to ten.
Es ist zehn vor zehn.
In informalconversations you will also often hear the term “kurz vor” or“kurz nach” (literally shortly before/after). This can meananything between ten minutes to/past to the full hour, but it usuallygets used if it is around 5minutes to the full hour.
How to Talk about Any Time of The Day
You can also usethis technique to talk about the exact time of the day. To do this,you will have to substitute 5/10/20 by the exact amount of minutes.
It is seventeen minutes past one.
Es ist siebzehn nach eins.
It is seven minutes past eight.
Es ist sieben nach acht.
It is totally fineif you use this way, and everyone in Germany will understand you, butwe usually use the way that we talked about in the beginning, usingUhr.
If you are having amore formal conversation, or you are talking about something (like anappointment), that needs you to specify the exact time, you wouldrather use the 24hout clock instead of the twelve hour clock.
If you use this way,you can’t use “a quarter past”, “half past”, or “5/10/20past”. You will always have to use Uhr in this case.
Let’s look at someexamples:
It is half past one.
Es ist dreizehn Uhr dreißig.
It is twenty minutes past four.
Es ist sechzehn Uhr zwanzig.
It is nineteen minutes to eight.
Es ist zwanzig Uhr einundvierzig.
How to Describe Specific Times of The Day.
Of course we alsohave things like the afternoon in German, so to wrap this up, I wantto give you an overview about some words that we use to describe somespecial times of the day.
Nouns
Der Morgen – the morning
Der Mittag – noon
Der Abend – the evening
Die Nacht – the night
Der Vormittag – the time between early in the morning and noon
Der Nachmittag – the afternoon
Adjectives
spät – late
früh – early
Verbs
morgens
abends
mittags
nachmittags
vormittags
nachts
