Hello.

Today we're looking at 'How to tell the time'.

First of all, how do we ask what the time is?

It's very simple.

So, if someone's asked you 'What time is it?' what are you going to say in response?

If the clock is on the hour then you can very simply say: 'It's three o'clock.' 'It's three o'clock.'

However, if you want to specify between morning or afternoon, then you can say 'it's three p.m.'.

'P.M.' is for any time between noon and midnight.

'A.M.' is for anytime between midnight and noon.

If the time shows anything between the hour and half past the hour, we use the word 'past'.

So, we have five past.

Ten past.

Quarter past.

Twenty past.

Twenty-five past.

And half past. 'Half past.'

So, did you notice, actually that the only thing that was slightly odd there was when we got to the quarter.

Fifteen minutes past.

Sometimes we will say fifteen minutes past, but it's easy enough to say 'quarter past'.

It's a quarter of the entire circle.

It's quarter past.

Now, anything between the half past position, and back to the hour, we are going to look at 'to'.

So the word we use is 'to'.

So we move around.

Twenty-five to.

Twenty to.

Quarter to.

Now we very rarely say 'fifteen minutes to'.

Very rarely!

Ten to.

Five to.

Four o'clock.

Now there are many variations in how you can tell the time.

Some people like to use the twenty- four-hour clock.

So instead of '6:30 p.m.,' you might get 'It's 18:30'.

And Instead of '5:25 a.m.' you might get 'It's 05:25'.

Just remember that in the beginning half of the hour we say 'past'.

In the last half of the hour we say 'to'.

'Past' and 'to'.

Oh, look at the time!

I'm afraid it's time for me to go.

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