What Time is it?

In this lesson you will learn how to tell what time it is whenyou look at a clock.

Clocks come in many different shapes and sizes.

They are found everywhere.There are clocks in houses,on wrists, and even on the

outside of buildings.

It is important to know how to tell time so thatyou don’t become late for some important event.

There are 24 hours in a day. The day is broken up intotwo parts: A.M. (the morning hours) and P.M. (the evening

hours). Every clock has 12 hours on it whichstands for half of a day.

The long “hand” on the clock is called the MINUTE HAND,and the short hand is called the HOUR HAND. The minutehand goes around the clock once an hour, and the hour hand

goes around the clock once every twelve hours. The blue numbersare the hour numbers, and the red numbers are the minutes in each

hour.

Minute Hand

Hour Hand

First let’s learn about the whole hours on a clock. Clickon to see what each hour on a clock looks like.Whole Hour

Notice that the minute hand is always pointing to the 12 onevery hour. Also notice when it is 1:00, the hour hand is

pointing to the 1. When it is 5:00, the hour hand is pointingto the 5. When it is any o’clock, the hour hand is pointing

to the number of o’clock that it is. “O’clock” means “of theclock.” So if it is “Three o’clock,” that means it is 3:00, whichmeans it is “three of the clock.” The minute hand is pointing

at the 12 and the hour hand is pointing at the 3.

1:00 5:00 3:00

One o’clock Five o’clock Three o’clock

Test Your KnowledgeFor more practice telling time on the hour, play this fun game!

Snapdragon Time Game

When you think you are ready to tell time on the hour, takethis quiz to test your knowledge.

Hour Quiz Hour Answers

Time to learn the “half hour”

There are 60 minutes in each hour. The minute hand on a clockpoints to each of the 60 minutes before a new hour is reached.

A half an hour is 30 minutes into the hour.When it is “half past” an hour, the MINUTEhand is pointing to the 6, or in the case of

these clocks, theminute hand is alsopointing to the red 30.

When it is half past anhour, the hour hand ishalfway between thecurrent hour and the hour that is coming upnext. Study the pictures of clocks on this page.What times do you think these clocks read?

This clock reads 10:30. There are two waysto say this with words. One way is “ten thirty.”Another way is to say “half past ten.” Noticethat the hour hand is in between the 10 and 11.

This clock shows 5:30. The two other ways tosay this are “five thirty” and “half past five.”Notice that the hour hand is in between the 5and 6.

This clock reads 2:30. “Half past two” and“two thirty” are other ways to read this clock.Notice that the hour hand is in between the 2and 3.

There are two important things to remember when telling timeon the half hour.

#2: The minutehand

will always bepointing to the 6.

#1: The hour hand will always be directly in between twonumbers on theclock, andwhatever hourhas the thirty

minutes past init will be thehour before theother hour theminute hand is near.

Test Your Knowledge

When you think you are ready to testyour knowledge on telling time by

the half hour, take this quiz and checkyour answers when you are done.

Half Hour Quiz

Half Hour Answers

Time to play this fun game!

Willy the Watchdog

Time to learn in 5 minutes!

It is easy to learn how to read a clock in five minute increments.These clocks have the minutes in red, so whatever the minute

hand is pointing to, that is the number of minutes that havepassed in the given hour.

5:10 9:20 1:25

This clock reads 5:10because the minute hand

is pointing to the 10, and thehour hand is just past the 5.

9:20 is represented onthis clock. The minute

hand points to the 20, andthe hour hand is just past the 9.

This reads 1:25. Theminute hand is pointing to the25 and the hour hand passed

the 1.

Not every clock will have the minutes written right on it,however. Therefore, you must know what minutes go with

the hour numbers on a clock.

Study the clock and the following chart and try to rememberwhat minute numbers go with each hour number. An easy way

to remember this concept is to remember that the minute numbersgo up by 5 on every hour number.

Hour Number Minute Number1 52 103 154 205 256 307 358 409 4510 5011 5512 60 or 00

What time does this clock say?

6:55 (“Six Fifty-five” or “Five to Seven”)

When the minute hand on a clock points to the 3 or the 9,there are significant ways to say what time is represented.

This clock reads 12:45. You can eitherread this by saying “Twelve Forty-five,”or “Quarter to One.” You can say that itis quarter to 1:00 because there is only ¼of an hour left in the 12:00 hour.¼=“one quarter.” Therefore, there is onequarter before the next hour, which is 1:00.So, you can say, “The time is quarter to one.”

The same applies to this clock. This clock reads 7:15, which is “Seven Fifteen,” or

“Quarter after Seven.” One quarter of an hourhas passed after seven. You can only say this

when the minute hand points to the 3.

Test Your Knowledge

Five Minute Quiz Five Minute Answers

Play the game above to practice telling time.

When you think you can tell time by any five minute increments,take the quiz below and check your answers when you are done.

Time Clock

Time to learn minutes

Learning how to read specific minutes on a clock is very simpleas soon as you’ve mastered every other aspect of reading a clock.

The key to reading the minutes on a clock islooking where the minute hand is placed.When it is not pointing directly to an hournumber and it is somewhere in between them,you must look closely to see if there are little

dashes on the clock. There are four dashes inbetween each hour number, and each dashrepresents one minute. For example, if theminute hand points to the third dash after anhour number, that means that three minutes havepassed since that hour number was reached.

12:41

10:07

This clock shows the minute hand pointingto the third dash after the 4th hour number.Notice the position of the hour hand-it is in

between the 1 and the 2. Therefore,what time does this clock say?

1:239:56

This clock time is very tricky. Notice thatthe minute hand is pointing to the first dashafter the 11th hour number. Remember thatthe 11th hour number stands for 55 minutes.55+1=56. The hour hand is almost pointingto the 10 but has not reached it yet.Therefore, the time is what?

Picture what a clock would look likeif it read 7:37. The minute hand wouldbe 2 minutes past 35, which is whathour number? The hour hand would be inbetween which two numbers?

Is this clock what youpictured in your head?

What would 4:12 look like on a clock? Thinkabout where the minute hand would be andwhat two numbers the hour hand should be inbetween.

This is what 4:12 lookslike on a clock.

Test Your Knowledge

How well do you know the clock? When you think you have mastered the ability to read a clock, take this quiz below and check your answers when you are done!

Minute Quiz

Minute Answers

Bang On ClockPlay “Bang On Clock” to see how well you can read

a clock when the time goes on and on!

The last part of telling time is determiningthe difference between the A.M. hours and theP.M. hours. It is important to remember thatthe A.M. hours are the first 12 hours in theday. In other words, A.M. means morning.P.M. hours refer to the afternoon hours—thesecond 12 hours in the day.

When reading a clock, the time could be either A.M. or P.M. Itis up to you to determine if the clock read is the time in themorning hours (A.M.) or evening hours (P.M.).

This clock reads 3:30. This could be 3:30in the morning OR in the evening. If it is3:30 in the morning, it would be 3:30 A.M.If it is 3:30 in the evening, it would read3:30 P.M.

Just remember:Morning hours mean

the time is in the A.M.

Afternoon/night hoursmean the time is in

the P.M.

A.M. stands for ante meridiem,which means “before noon.”

Noon is 12:00 P.M. or lunch time.The A.M. hours go from 12:00 A.M. (midnight) to 11:59 A.M.

(one minute before noon).

P.M. stands for post meridiem,which means “after noon.”

The P.M. hours go from 12:00 P.M.(lunch time) to 11:59 P.M. (one

minute before midnight).

The Ultimate Test

Cat Clock

Stop the ClockKats Time

Play these clock games and see if youcan meet up to the challenge of tellingtime.

As soon as you have practiced enough tobe a professional clock-reader, take theclock test and check your answers whenyou are done.

About what time doesthis clock read?

7:45

Final AnswersFinal Test

You have completed this time-tellinglesson!

Now do you know what time it is? It isnow time for you to go out in the worldand know what time it is and how to tell

time on any clock!