In this lesson you will learn how to tell what time it is when What is the Time? In this lesson you will learn how to tell what time it is when you 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 that you don’t become late for some important event.

There are 24 hours in a day. The day is broken up into two parts: A.M. (the morning hours) and P.M. (the evening hours). Every clock has 12 hours on it which stands for half of a day. Minute Hand Hour Hand The long “hand” on the clock is called the MINUTE HAND, and the short hand is called the HOUR HAND. The minute hand goes around the clock once an hour, and the hour hand goes around the clock once every twelve hours. The blue numbers are the hour numbers, and the red numbers are the minutes in each hour.

First let’s learn about the whole hours on a clock. Whole Hour 1:00 5:00 3:00 One o’clock Five o’clock Three o’clock Notice that the minute hand is always pointing to the 12 on every 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 pointing to 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 the clock.” So if it is “Three o’clock,” that means it is 3:00, which means it is “three of the clock.” The minute hand is pointing at the 12 and the hour hand is pointing at the 3.

Time to learn the “half hour” There are 60 minutes in each hour. The minute hand on a clock points 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 MINUTE hand is pointing to the 6, or in the case of these clocks, the minute hand is also pointing to the red 30. When it is half past an hour, the hour hand is halfway between the current hour and the hour that is coming up next. Study the pictures of clocks on this page. What times do you think these clocks read?

This clock reads 10:30. There are two ways to say this with words. One way is “ten thirty.” Another way is to say “half past ten.” Notice that the hour hand is in between the 10 and 11. This clock shows 5:30. The two other ways to say this are “five thirty” and “half past five.” Notice that the hour hand is in between the 5 and 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 2 and 3.

There are two important things to remember when telling time on the half hour. #1: The hour hand will always be directly in between two numbers on the clock, and whatever hour has the thirty minutes past in it will be the hour before the other hour the minute hand is near. #2: The minute hand will always be pointing to the 6.

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 have passed in the given hour. 5:10 9:20 1:25 This clock reads 5:10 because the minute hand is pointing to the 10, and the hour hand is just past the 5. 9:20 is represented on this clock. The minute hand points to the 20, and the hour hand is just past the 9. This reads 1:25. The minute hand is pointing to the 25 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 remember what minute numbers go with each hour number. An easy way to remember this concept is to remember that the minute numbers go up by 5 on every hour number. What time does this clock say? Hour Number Minute Number 1 5 2 10 3 15 4 20 5 25 6 30 7 35 8 40 9 45 10 50 11 55 12 60 or 00 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 either read this by saying “Twelve Forty-five,” or “Quarter to One.” You can say that it is quarter to 1:00 because there is only ¼ of an hour left in the 12:00 hour. ¼=“one quarter.” Therefore, there is one quarter 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 hour has passed after seven. You can only say this when the minute hand points to the 3.

Time to learn minutes Learning how to read specific minutes on a clock is very simple as soon as you’ve mastered every other aspect of reading a clock. 10:07 The key to reading the minutes on a clock is looking where the minute hand is placed. When it is not pointing directly to an hour number 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 in between each hour number, and each dash represents one minute. For example, if the minute hand points to the third dash after an hour number, that means that three minutes have passed since that hour number was reached. 12:41

1:23 9:56 This clock shows the minute hand pointing to 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? 1:23 9:56 This clock time is very tricky. Notice that the minute hand is pointing to the first dash after the 11th hour number. Remember that the 11th hour number stands for 55 minutes. 55+1=56. The hour hand is almost pointing to the 10 but has not reached it yet. Therefore, the time is what?

Picture what a clock would look like if it read 7:37. The minute hand would be 2 minutes past 35, which is what hour number? The hour hand would be in between which two numbers? Is this clock what you pictured in your head? What would 4:12 look like on a clock? Think about where the minute hand would be and what two numbers the hour hand should be in between. This is what 4:12 looks like on a clock.

The last part of telling time is determining the difference between the A.M. hours and the P.M. hours. It is important to remember that the A.M. hours are the first 12 hours in the day. In other words, A.M. means morning. P.M. hours refer to the afternoon hours—the second 12 hours in the day. When reading a clock, the time could be either A.M. or P.M. It is up to you to determine if the clock read is the time in the morning hours (A.M.) or evening hours (P.M.). This clock reads 3:30. This could be 3:30 in the morning OR in the evening. If it is 3:30 in the morning, it would be 3:30 A.M. If it is 3:30 in the evening, it would read 3:30 P.M.