Telling time in German

Telling time is a familiar topic for language learners. Reading the time in German requires remembering a few principles. Today's article will guide you on how to tell the time in German.

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

Wie spät ist es? (What time is it?)

= Um wie viel Uhr ist es?

Both questions above are equivalent and can be used interchangeably. To answer either question, 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, newspapers, announcements over loudspeakers, or when absolute time accuracy is required.

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 method uses the 24-hour system. Morning and evening hours will not overlap.

• For whole hours (no additional minutes), there is no need to state 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 involving "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 method, 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 "to the hour" and use the preposition vor when reading.

09:40 → 40 minutes has passed the first 30 minutes → Convert to "to the hour": 9:40 = 20 minutes to 10 & use vor when reading

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

10:48 → 48 minutes has passed the first 30 minutes → Convert to "to the hour": 10:48 = 12 minutes to 11 & use vor when reading

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

***Note:

• When reading the exact hour in this style, the word "Uhr" may be omitted.

• The informal way of reading uses a 12-hour system. Morning and evening hours will sound the same. For example, 13:00 is equivalent to 1:00, 19:00 is equivalent to 7:00, 23:00 is equivalent 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 expressions 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 minute 30: halb + next hour

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

1. At minute 15: Viertel + nach + hour

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

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

1. At minute 45: Viertel + vor + hour to09:45 → 45 minutes has already passed the first 30 minutes → Convert to "before the hour": 9:45 = quarter to 10 & use vor when saying it.

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

1. At minute 25:

• For this special minute mark, we use the half-hour mark as a reference point.

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

Structure: Minutes (fünf) + vor + Half-hour mark

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

1. At minute 35:

• For this special minute mark, we also use the half-hour mark as a reference point.

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

Structure: Minutes (fünf) + nach + Half-hour mark

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

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

• We can use "kurz" to replace the specific number when saying the time.

02:01 (2:01) / 02:02 (2:02) / 02:03 (2:03) → All can be read as: Es ist kurz nach zwei. (It is just after two.)

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