A blog post about a recent topic in my class regarding telling the time. In simple English we might say “It’s eleven fifteen” (11.15am). However, usually we might say “It’s a quarter past eleven”. How does this work?
Key words: Half, quarter, past, to
Key phrases: quarter past, half past, quarter to
Why? “It’s a quarter past the hour” means it’s 15 minutes since this hour began.
Time – Quarter past and half past. Whiteboard photo by Andrew Blyth
For instance:
- 11.15am is “It’s a quarter past eleven” or “… a quarter past the hour”.
- 11.30am is “It’s half past eleven”
- 11.45am is “It’s a quarter to twelve”
Also, we can add and subtract information, and use numbers:
- “It’s a quarter past”
- “It’s half past”
- “It’s a quarter to”
- “Let’s meet at a quarter past”
- “I have a booking for half past two”
- “We’re late. We’ll get there at five minutes to twelve”
- “We’re late. We’ll get there at five minutes to” (11.55am)
- “Let’s meet at twenty past three this afternoon” (3.20pm)
- “The booking is for ten past eight this evening” (8.10pm)
If you have any questions, please ask or leave a comment below.
