Times and Dates

Times and Dates

Times in Spanish

Telling the Time

  • “¿Qué hora es?” is the formal way to ask “what time is it?” in Spanish.
  • Time is read on a 12-hour clock format in everyday Spanish, unless stated otherwise.
  • 1 o’ clock is translated as “la una” and the rest from 2-12 o’ clock are said using “las”. For example, 2 o’ clock is “las dos”.
  • Minutes past the hour are expressed by using “y” (and). For example, 1:15 would be “la una y cuarto”.
  • When half an hour passes, use “y media”. For example, 2:30 would be “las dos y media”.
  • For time after the half hour, subtract the minutes from the next hour and use “menos” (minus). For example, 1:45 would be “las dos menos cuarto”.
  • Use “de la mañana” for morning (from 12 midnight till 11:59 AM), “de la tarde” for afternoon (from 12 noon till 6:59 PM), and “de la noche” for evening/night (from 7 PM till 11:59 PM).

Saying At What Time

  • To say an event occurs at a certain time, use “a la(s)”. For example, “a las dos” (at two o’clock).
  • The phrase “en punto” can be used to denote exact hours, such as “a las tres en punto” (at three o’clock sharp).

Dates in Spanish

Days of the Week

  • The days of the week are lunes (Monday), martes (Tuesday), miércoles (Wednesday), jueves (Thursday), viernes (Friday), sábado (Saturday), and domingo (Sunday).
  • Unlike English, days of the week are not capitalized in Spanish.
  • To say “on Monday” or “on Friday” use “el” before the day. For example: “El lunes” (on Monday), “El viernes” (on Friday).

Months of the Year

  • The months of the year are enero (January), febrero (February), marzo (March), abril (April), mayo (May), junio (June), julio (July), agosto (August), septiembre (September), octubre (October), noviembre (November), diciembre (December).
  • The word for month is “mes” and for year is “año”.
  • Like the days of the week, months are also not capitalized in Spanish.

Expressing Dates

  • Dates in Spanish are typically formatted as Day/Month/Year, different from the American English style of Month/Day/Year.
  • A period or full stop is used instead of a comma to separate the day and the month.
  • When mentioning years, use “de” before the year, for example, “25 de diciembre” (25th of December).