Lesl

How to Tell Time in English
With everyone’s busy lives, it’s important to “watch the clock” and stay on schedule.
So, there’s a good chance that if you’re living in America, you will be asked forthe time or you will need to ask someone for the time. Here are some basic rules for time telling.
Ways to ask for the time:
POLITE:
“Excuse me,….”
• “…do you know what time it is?”
• “…do youhave the time?”
• “…do you happen to know what time it is?”
FAMILIAR: (asking a friend)
• “what time is it?”
In a very familiar situation, you could even see a friend look at your wrist and ask, “doyou have a watch?” which basically means, ‘can I look at your watch to check the time?’ (Of course, now with cell phones, this is less common, but it could happen!)
Here are some sample ways to tellthe time in response to the question, “what time is it?”:
• 12:00pm
• “It’s twelve”
• “It’s twelve o’clock”
• “It’s noon”
• (“It’s noon on the dot” would mean that it’s exactly 12:00pm, not11:59am and not 12:01pm)
• Don’t confuse 12:00pm, which is in the afternoon, with “12:00am” which is “midnight”, when most people are sleeping.
• 7:45pm
• “It’s seven forty five”
• “It’s quarter ofeight”
• 9:55pm
• “It’s nine fifty five”
• “It’s five of” (i.e. five minutes before the upcoming hour)
• “It’s fifty five minutes past the hour” (Formal only; this is never said in everyday Americanconversations).
• 3:00am
• “It’s three a.m.”
• “It’s three in the morning”
• “It’s the middle of the night” (very general)

Prepositions of place

Prepositions in expressions of timePreposition Use Examples
in in months in July; in September
year in 1985; in 1999
seasons in summer; in the summer of 69
part of the day in the morning; in the afternoon; in the evening
duration ina minute; in two weeks
at part of the day at night
time of day at 6 o'clock; at midnight
celebrations at Christmas; at Easter
fixed phrases at the end of the week
at the same time
on days...