To ask the time you say ¿Qué hora es? (keh OH-rah es) — "what hour is it?". To answer, Spanish does a small, charming thing: for one o'clock it says es la una (es lah OO-nah) — "it is the one" — but for every other hour it switches to the plural, son las… (son las) — "they are the…". So two o'clock is son las dos, three is son las tres, and on round the clock.
¿Qué hora es? — What time is it?
Es la una. — It's one o'clock. (just this one is singular)
Son las dos. — It's two o'clock.
Son las siete. — It's seven o'clock.
It's hidden, but logical. The Spanish for "o'clock" leaves out the word hora ("hour") — but it's still secretly there. "It's one (hour)" is one thing, so es la una. "It's two (hours)" is more than one, so it goes plural: son las dos. The clock counts the hours, and the verb just agrees with the count.
Spain is geographically lined up with Britain and Portugal — but it keeps its clocks an hour ahead, on Central European Time. The reason is history: Franco moved Spain's clocks to match Nazi Germany in 1940, and they never moved back. It's part of why Spanish meals run so late.
Now the minutes. Spanish builds them onto the hour with the little word y ("and") for time past the hour, and menos ("less", "minus") for time to the next hour. Three of them do nearly all the work:
| Spanish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| y media | ee MEH-dyah | half past (lit. "and a half") |
| y cuarto | ee KWAR-toh | quarter past (lit. "and a quarter") |
| menos cuarto | MEH-nos KWAR-toh | quarter to (lit. "less a quarter") |
| en punto | en POON-toh | exactly, "on the dot" |
Son las dos y media. — It's half past two.
Son las tres y cuarto. — It's quarter past three.
Son las cinco menos cuarto. — It's quarter to five.
Es la una en punto. — It's one o'clock exactly.
Spanish has a special word for two weeks — quincena, "a fifteen" — and a word for "a week" that hides the number eight: ocho días ("eight days") is a common way to say "a week", because Spanish counts both the day you start and the day you end.
Many of the verbs you use for your own routine are reflexive — that is, you do them to yourself. You don't just "wash"; you "wash yourself". Spanish marks this with a small me ("myself") sitting in front of the verb. So "I get up" is me levanto, and "I shower" is me ducho. A few routine verbs aren't reflexive at all — desayuno ("I have breakfast") and voy ("I go") just stand on their own.
| Spanish | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| me levanto | meh leh-VAN-toh | I get up |
| me ducho | meh DOO-choh | I shower / have a shower |
| me visto | meh VEES-toh | I get dressed |
| desayuno | deh-sah-YOO-noh | I have breakfast |
| voy al colegio | voy al koh-LEH-hyoh | I go to school |
| me acuesto | meh ah-KWES-toh | I go to bed |
Tap each card — the front is Spanish, the back gives the meaning and how to say it:
To pin an action to a time, use a la / a las ("at"). Me levanto a las siete — "I get up at seven". It follows the same one-or-many rule as the clock: a la una for one o'clock, a las for every other hour.
The Spanish word for breakfast, desayuno, literally means "un-fasting" — des- (undo) plus ayuno (a fast). It's the meal that breaks the night's fast, exactly like the English word break-fast. Two languages, the same quiet idea.
A list of actions becomes a day the moment you string them together with sequencing words. Three small ones carry a whole morning: primero ("first"), luego ("then" / "next"), and después ("afterwards"). Drop one in front of each action and your routine flows.
Primero me levanto a las siete. — First I get up at seven.
Luego me ducho y me visto. — Then I shower and get dressed.
Después desayuno. — After, I have breakfast.
Por fin, voy al colegio. — Finally, I go to school.
Spanish, like most of Europe, often uses the 24-hour clock for anything official — train times, TV listings, shop hours. So a timetable might say a train leaves at las catorce treinta — 14:30, half past two in the afternoon. The "past / to the hour" words stay for talking; the 24-hour numbers turn up in print.
Tap any line to hear it spoken in Spanish, then say it back. They run in order, the way a real morning does — start at the top and work down.
Everything here is spoken by your browser's built-in voice, so it works offline. If a Spanish voice is on your device it will sound Spanish; if not, you'll still hear the words, read in whatever voice is available.
Fresh one. Type the two words that mean quarter past: Son las seis ______. (It's quarter past six.)
Put it together. Write three or four lines about your morning, in order, with a time in at least one. Use the sequencing words and the routine verbs — Primero… · Luego… · Después… · a las… Three or four lines is plenty. Copy the accents and the ñ as best you can — getting close is the whole aim today.
strong You ran your actions in order and reached for the sequencing words — that's exactly what turns a list of verbs into a day someone can follow. Keeping the little me on me levanto and me ducho shows the reflexive idea has landed.
try this Read your time back and check the one-or-many rule — a la una for one o'clock, a las for every other hour. Say the line aloud as you check; your ear will catch the singular slip the eye skips past.
to add When this feels steady, add a half or a quarter to one of your times: Me levanto a las siete y media. One small phrase, and your day stops being "on the hour" and starts sounding real.
Sit down with Dad for any of these. You won't follow every word — you're not meant to. Let the sound of Spanish become familiar, and listen for the handful of words you now know. Heavier titles flagged for a chat first.
Two short films to watch alongside today's lesson — each shows you something the words and pictures can't.
You can ask and answer the time, you can land on the half and the quarter, and you can walk someone through a morning with primero, luego, después. You met the verbs you do to yourself, and the small late-running habits of a Spanish day. Say your morning aloud once more before you close the page. Florence, this is Spanish — and you're already in it.