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
minutes or so so please say hi when you
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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
it
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
is sort of our beginning point before
today all right with that said then
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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
take a quick break if you missed it
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alrighty good let’s continue on to the
last part of today’s lesson also as
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think from from our technical difficulty
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finish shall I finish her can I look at
prepositions or no five minutes yeah all
right let’s talk about prepositions for
five minutes
okay I should say this is going to be
very quick if you have questions about
prepositions of time
please check the YouTube channel we have
a video on the YouTube channel about
prepositions of time but I want to make
sure that we have a chance to review
can’t add the text okay gotcha gotcha
blackboard only okay gotcha then I’ll do
a quick somehow introduction to how to
use prepositions of time I will choose a
couple many of you asked this question
about using this so doing an activity at
a time so for example I wake up at 8:00
or I go to bed at 9:00 or I eat lunch at
12 o’clock we use at for the time a
specific time happens it’s like the
specific point in a schedule something
happens so you want to talk about the
time an action occurs you use at use at
to do that if however you want to talk
about like a deadline there’s a video
about this on the channel we use the
word by we use the preposition by to
refer to deadline so I need to finish
this live stream by like 10:30 for
example or I need to do this reports by
8:00 o’clock by shows us the time
something has to finish we must finish
something by this point it shows us like
the last point for an action
an action needs to finish by that point
alright another one that people confuse
though actually there’s a video I’ve
used till here but you can use em till I
made a video about the difference
between by and until these two words are
very commonly confused actually so it’s
like this these two words it’s like
we’re using it like I said by is used to
talk about a deadline but until is used
like for a continuing action something
that’s continuing and then might change
into the future so I don’t have much
time and it’s hard to show but till and
until are kind of often confused with by
so I recommend checking the by versus
until video on the YouTube channel for
more details about this point okay um I
think I should probably end there
because we have no more time for today
so if you want to know more about
prepositions of time
please check the YouTube channel there’s
a video there called prepositions of
time where I talked about these points
so please check it out and I hope that
answers some of your questions
also for bye and until there’s a
different video just for by versus until
so please check out those two videos
those are great points for review for
this for this lesson I think all right
so to review I think these are some good
basic points if you’re beginning this
stuff right here is great for you to
practice I recommend this if you’re like
an intermediate learner if you’re
getting a little bit leveled up you
might think about using these
expressions quarter and half past and so
on so maybe this part is good for
beginners and maybe this part is good
for intermediate learners so I hope that
you found something new in today’s
lesson and sorry again about the
technical difficulties
our awesome team fixed everything up
though okay but we do have to finish we
do have to finish for today’s lesson so
we’ll be back next week we have a new
topic for next week next week next
week’s topic is how to say you’re sorry
so how to apologize yeah this is
important so how do you do this in like
a natural way and how do you do this in
like using the correct words for the
situation so depending on the situation
you might need to use a different way of
apologizing so this is our topic for
next week please join us July 18th
that’s Wednesday July 18th 10 p.m.
Eastern Standard Standard Time that’s
New York City time please Google your
local time if you don’t know it but yeah
please join us we’ll talk about
different ways to say sorry there and
also please don’t forget to go download
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time next week we’ll talk about how to
say sorry so should be good we’ll finish
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you again next time bye
you