Telling the time is a familiar topic for language learners. To tell the time in German, you need to remember a few principles. Today's article will explain how to tell the time in German.

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A. In German, when you want to ask the time, there are 2 ways to ask:

Wie spät ist es? (What time is it?)

= Um wie viel Uhr ist es?

The two questions above are equivalent and can be used interchangeably. To answer these two questions, we use the phrase: Es ist + time

B. There are 2 ways to tell the time in German:

1. The official way of telling time (offiziell):

• Used in written texts, books and newspapers, announcements over loudspeakers and radio, or when absolute precision of time is needed.

Structure: hour + Uhr + minutes

08:40 - Es ist acht Uhr vierzig. (It is 8:40.)

18:06 - Es ist achtzehn Uhr sechs. (It is 18:06.)

***Note:

• The official way uses the 24-hour system. Morning and evening hours are not read the same way.

• For a full hour (no extra minutes), there is no need to say the minutes.

08:00 - Es ist acht Uhr. (It is 8 o'clock.)

• Note when reading times involving "one o'clock":

01:12 - Es ist ein Uhr zwölf. (It is 1:12.)

→ Cases with "one o'clock" are read as "ein", not eins Uhr or eine Uhr.

1. The unofficial way of telling time (inoffiziell)

• Used in everyday life and in conversation.

• With the unofficial way, we read in the reverse order.

Structure: minutes + nach/vor + hour

*** How to use nach and vor:

• For the first 30 minutes of each hour, we use the preposition nach when telling the time.

09:07 → Es ist sieben nach neun. (It is 9:07.)

11:22 → Es ist zweiundzwanzig nach elf. (It is 11:22.)

• For the next 30 minutes of each hour, we convert that time to "minutes to the next hour" and use the preposition vor when telling the time.

09:40 → 40 minutes has gone past the first 30 minutes → Convert to "minutes to the hour": 9:40 = 20 minutes to 10 & use vor when telling the time

→ Es ist zwanzig vor zehn. (It is 20 minutes to 10.)

10:48 → 48 minutes has gone past the first 30 minutes → Convert to "minutes to the hour": 10:48 = 12 minutes to 11 & use vor when telling the time

→ Es ist zwölf vor elf. (It is 12 minutes to 11.)

***Note:

• When telling an exact hour in this way, the word "Uhr" can be omitted.

• The unofficial way uses the 12-hour system. Morning and evening hours are read the same way. For example, 13:00 is equivalent to 1:00, 19:00 to 7:00, 23:00 to 11:00... The listener distinguishes morning from evening based on the context of the conversation.

Morning: 08:00 - Es ist acht. (It is 8 o'clock.)

Evening: 20:00 - Es ist acht. (It is 8 o'clock.)

→ Or, if you want to avoid confusion, we can add specific time-of-day words such as: morgens, vormittags, nachmittags, abends, nachts.

08:00 - Es ist morgens acht. (It is 8 o'clock in the morning.)

20:00 - Es ist abends acht. (It is 8 o'clock in the evening.)

• SPECIAL cases:

1. At 30 minutes: halb + the next hour

01:30 → The next hour is 2 → Es ist halb zwei. (It is half past one.)

1. At 15 minutes: Viertel + nach + hour

09:15 → 15 minutes is still within the first 30 minutes → Use nach when telling the time.

→ 09:15 - Es ist Viertel nach neun. (It is 9:15.)

1. At 45 minutes: Viertel + vor + the next hour

09:45 → 45 minutes has gone past the first 30 minutes → Convert to "minutes to the hour": 9:45 = 15 minutes to 10 & use vor when telling the time.

→ Es ist Viertel vor zehn. (It is 15 minutes to ten.)

1. At 25 minutes:

• For this special minute mark, we compare against the half-hour mark.

08:25 → Take half past eight (halb neun) as the reference. 8:25 means there are still 5 minutes to go before half past eight -> Use the preposition vor (before) to convey the meaning: 5 minutes before half past eight.

Structure: Minutes (fünf) + vor + half hour

→ 08:25 - Es ist fünf vor halb neun. (It is 8:25.)

1. At 35 minutes:

• For this special minute mark, we also compare against the half-hour mark.

06:35: 6:35 -> Take half past six (halb sieben) as the reference. 6:35 means it is 5 minutes past half past six -> Use the preposition nach (after) to convey the meaning: 5 minutes after half past six.

Structure: Minutes (fünf) + nach + half hour

→ 06:35 - Es ist fünf nach halb sieben. (It is 6:35.)

1. For very small odd minutes (1 - 2 - 3 minutes)

• We can use "kurz" instead of the specific number when telling the time.

02:01 (1 minute past 2) / 02:02 (2 minutes past 2) / 02:03 (3 minutes past 2) → can all be read as: Es ist kurz nach zwei. (It is just after 2.)

02:57 (3 minutes to 3) / 02:58 (2 minutes to 3) / 02:59 (1 minute to 3) → can all be read as: Es ist kurz vor drei. (It is just before 3.)