How to Tell Time in English Basic English Phrases

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easier this week our topic is time we’re

going to talk about time in English how

to tell time so this is something a lot

of you have asked about especially

prepositions like at in on and by so at

the end of today’s lesson I’m going to

talk about those points a little bit so

we’re going to begin in about maybe two

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Harley namja no nan Gemma G - Daniel

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okay but yes today’s topic will be time

in English we’re going to talk about how

to tell the time in English we use the

expression tell time to tell time means

to understand a clock and to express the

time of day or related words okay hi

everybody Raphael and Sultan and Leon

Rica hi lots of people great welcome

alright we’re about four minutes in so

let’s get started uh the as always I

made kind of three groups for today’s

topic Group one first part will talk

about basic time expression so maybe

review so very basic it’s one o’clock

it’s two o’clock second will go to like

intermediate like middle level time

expressions and third we’ll talk about

some like prepositions we use with time

so let’s begin let’s start then with the

first question for today a basic one the

probably most familiar question for many

of you which is simply what time is it

what time is it

so the basic time related question when

you want to check the time you want to

ask someone the time the current time

what time is it what time is it

so what time is it so this is the most

basic way to ask about the time here we

can see it more clearly my handwriting

is terrible what time is it what time is

so to check the time what time is it or

what time is it now you might also hear

what time is it now so we don’t need to

use now but if you want to you can so

what time is it

our basic question for today how to ask

the time yes to ask the time what time

is it what time is it

no I’m not wearing a watch okay can I

move the blackboard oh yes the light

change sorry okay toward me is that

better

better okay cool ooh ah I see it’s a

little hard okay so what time is it what

time is it okay then to answer this

question we have a couple different ways

we can answer this question uh yeah nice

you guys are sending your the time and

your time zone right now that’s awesome

so when you answer this question there

are two kind of patterns we can think of

it’s plus a number so this number is

like it’s 11 it’s two it’s 12

it’s three so when you answer with this

pattern

this means it’s like the top of the hour

so top of the hour means it’s like the

like right at the zero minute mark of

that our top of the hour so now it’s not

the top of the hour now it’s six minutes

after that so when it’s the exactly at

this point on the clock this top of the

hour mark the expression I’m using is

top of the hour you’ll see it in a

second I think but when it’s the top of

the hour when it’s exactly at this point

in the clock you can use this basic one

it’s two it’s 11 it’s 12 so don’t forget

to pronounce this s clearly it’s it’s

not it but it’s it’s so it’s - it’s 12s

however it is not the top of the hour

it’s some other point in time we can use

this pattern it’s where you have your

hour and two other digits so some of you

are writing like it’s 837 someone wrote

in the YouTube chat or it’s 10:10 in the

Philippines thanks guys so when you use

this pattern as well someone said in the

YouTube chat 23:07 when we’re speaking

like when we’re using like when we’re

we’re actually talking we don’t use you

know

verse 13 to 24 we only use 1 to 12 we

only use 1 to 12

we don’t use 0 actually at least in US

English is that ok yeah so we only use 1

to 12 for this pattern so this is for

this part actually for your hours 1 to

12 only so it’s it’s 2 p.m. we don’t say

like 14 we don’t use that in speech for

this part however we can use well we’ll

use 0 we say Oh usually 259 for this

part

so this first digit should be 1 to 12

your second digit should be 0 to 59 so

great some of you are saying 907 10 a.m.

perfect it’s 7:40 perfect perfect nice

so we say this number and this number

separately seven forty seven forty

someone said at 7:40 okay so these are

the two basic ways to express time

actually I think these two are probably

the most common ways we use like they’re

quick and easy to remember so this is a

great basic kind of introduction to

telling time okay sounds good

nice alright so let’s move along to the

next point

next point some of you have asked before

what does this mean

like when should I use o clock this word

o clock like people ask what is it what

does it mean this word again I explained

this expression here top of the hour so

when it’s the top of the hour like 10

o’clock 2 o’clock 3 o’clock we can use

this o clock after that time but why

this actually comes from an old English

point before we had you know digital

clocks before clocks were common

we used this

of the clock this is a long time ago

hundreds of years ago so there were two

systems for telling time and one system

was using the Sun using the Sun and the

moon

another system was using a clock or like

a sundial or some way of telling or

understanding the time based on a system

that was not the Sun or the moon so of

the clock became oh clock so you can see

the of the was reduced here and became

oh clock so o´clock has a historical use

we don’t actually need it now we don’t

need it now but many people do use it

hmm Harley yes 1405 is not typical we

could say it on his schedule yes but

when we’re speaking we don’t say 1405

okay so this is one point about the word

o clock you can use it when you’re

talking about x at the top of the hour

it’s two o’clock it’s three o’clock we

don’t say like it’s three o’clock thirty

something we don’t use that we use it

for these top of the hour expressions

okay good then the final point for this

part I wonder if you can see I’ll put it

here a lot of students ask about these

two things AM and PM yeah really fit AM

and PM what are these for we use a.m.

for morning and PM for the afternoon but

what do these mean so when we use a.m.

we use it for honest schedule we do not

say this in speaking this is midnight

this is midnight the middle of the night

midnight we wrote wrong oh okay so this

is midnight and then we use a.m. until

11:59 in the morning

gotcha control desk okay so 11:59 in the

morning

this is am p.m. therefore is 12 o’clock

noon so midday

11:59 at night or perhaps it’s easy to

understand 23:59 so why do we use am &

PM then like what’s the reason for this

another like historical point here this

AM PM this comes from the a here I’ll

use a different color the a here comes

from the word aunty

so aunty this is Latin actually aunty

means before and then this M here means

Meridian ante meridiem is before so this

means like middle middle so before the

middle in other words before the middle

of the day ante meridiem so we don’t

need to know this we don’t need to know

this but we still use this AM and PM to

mean them am entity then what is P so

meridiem stays the same this M is still

meridiem with PM but this P changes so

ante means before P we talked about a

postscript last week this means the same

thing

post means after ante meridiem post

meridiem becomes AM and PM okay Oh is

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but with that this is sort of the

introduction to today’s lesson so this

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anyway let’s get back to today’s lesson

where we’re talking about time so

beginning again let’s get back to the

second part of today’s lesson then we’ll

go a little bit quickly I suppose we’re

kind of running low on time so to give

back to today’s topic let’s take a look

at some more intermediate expressions we

can use so I want to look at this I’ll

use the same clock can you guys see it

it’s kind of small isn’t it I’ll make a

new one I want to talk about expressions

that are sort of leveled up from these

that we talked about earlier so I want

to use a visual to do this so if we

imagine it’s two o’clock so for the

purposes for this for this point this

means two o’clock sorry it’s hard to see

there isn’t it so let’s imagine it’s two

o’clock and then I’ll draw some other

some other things so we can talk about

different times I want to first talk

about the expression till so it’s

minutes till a time this expression

using till to talk about a time we use

till four minutes before an hour so in

this case it’s almost two let’s imagine

it’s it’s not two o’clock yet so maybe a

more accurate line is here for my hour

time then right about here is my minutes

hand for this expression if I want to

use this pattern of speaking I could say

it’s 150 it’s 150 or a different way

that we use is this expression it’s

minutes in this case it’s ten minutes

till - it’s 10 till - so till means

before so that means it’s not 2 o’clock

now it’s 10 minutes before - it’s ten

minutes before - so 10:00 till 2:00

10:00 till - or maybe ten until two but

more commonly we use till TI ll if you

can see that okay then let’s take a look

at a similar expression ten past - ten

pass so past means after it’s ten past -

this is the opposite thing till meant

before two o’clock ten past - means it’s

ten minutes after two ten past two a

different way to say this time is it’s

to 10 it’s to ten ten past two means to

10 10 past - okay

so so please be careful of this till and

past I know people get kind of caught up

with that all right then I want to go on

to the next one

we’ve talked about till and past and now

I want to add this word a quarter

quarter so quarter means 1/4 when we

read fractions in English we say 1/4 1

over the number I made a video of hepta

sexually so quarter we can use with till

and past a quarter though in time refers

to 15 minutes quarter of one hour means

15 minutes so 15 minutes is a quarter of

an hour a quarter of an hour we can use

quarter with till and quarter with past

so quarter till a quarter till two would

mean would mean

about this time right here so it’s 1:45

we could say it’s 1:45 or we could say

it’s a quarter till 2 in this case they

mean the same thing people just use

whatever they feel like

Enzo what’s most common til or past

they’re both common they have different

meanings though til means not yet past

means after so quarter till quarter past

however quarter past two would mean

something like this it’s 2:15 sorry it’s

getting messy 2:15 would be

quarter quarter past two 215 215 so

please keep in mind people do use

quarter and till and past the final one

I want to review is this expression half

past a time really half past an hour

half past an hour so if quarter is 15

minutes half or half an hour means 30

minutes so this expression half past a

time means 30 minutes past an hour 30

minutes past an hour so in my example

here if we’re imagining two o’clock is

the hour and we’re at the 30-minute mark

here we could say it’s half past two so

it’s 30 minutes past two half past two

alright so these are kind of a little

bit more advanced half past two thirty

minutes so to review half an hour one

hour is 60 minutes one hour is 60

minutes half an hour is 30 minutes

quarter hour is 15 minutes okay all

right

hi raka teeth okay good um shall I take

another quick break

10 to 5 without till is this correct yes

that is correct

Youssef says is 10 to 5 without till

correct yes so instead of till sometimes

we use 2 it’s 10 minutes to 5 that means

10 minutes before 5 yes ok then I will

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sorry about our technical difficulties

earlier we fixed everything I think but