How to Tell Time in Spanish
To tell time in Spanish, use the verb "son las" unless it's 1 o'clock, when you should use "es la" instead. If you need to tell the time in the first half hour, follow "son las" with the number for the current hour, the word "y" which means "and," and the number of minutes. For example, "Son las siete y seis" means "It's 7:06." To tell the time in the second half hour, use the next hour rather than the current hour, followed by "menos" which means "minus," and the number of minutes remaining until the next hour. For example, "Son las nueve menos cinco" means "It's 8:55."
Understand how to use the verb "ser" when telling time. Ser is a verb that means "to be" and it's the only verb you'll need to tell the time. The two forms of ser are the plural form, son las ("they are") and the singular form, es la ("it is"). Only use es la when the hour is one o' clock. Use son las for all other times of day. For example: Son las dos. It's two o'clock. Es la una. It's one o'clock. Tell the time using whole hours. Before telling the time fully, you should learn how to tell the time just using hours. Simply say es la una to indicate that it's one o'clock, and use son las followed the number associated with any hour other than one to say the time. Here are some examples: Son las cuatro. It's four o'clock. Son las cinco. It's five o'clock. Son las seis. It's six o'clock. Son las siete. It's seven o'clock. Son las once. It's eleven o'clock. Learn how to indicate if it's midnight or noon. Midnight and noon are whole hours, but you should say that it's midnight or noon using a slightly different method. Here's how to do it: Es mediodía. It's noon. Es medianoche. It's midnight. Tell the time using hours and minutes. Telling the time in Spanish using minutes and hours is a bit trickier than in English. To tell the time in Spanish, you'll never need to use a number higher than 29. Here are the two methods you need to know: To tell the time in the first half hour, simply state the correct form of ser followed by the hour, followed by y ("and") and the number of minutes. Here are some examples: Son las siete y seis. It's 7:06. Son las diez y veinte. It's 10:20. Son las once y diez. It's 11:10. Just remember one exception: if you're indicating that it's the half hour, then don't say treinta ("thirty") but say media ("half") instead. For example: Son las dos y media. It's 2:30. To tell the time in the second half hour, you'll have to first state the correct form of ser followed by the next hour, followed by menos (minus) and the amount of minutes remaining until the following hour. Here are some examples: Son las nueve menos cinco. It's 8:55. Son las once menos veinte. It's 10:40. Es la una menos veinticinco. It's 12:35. Son las tres menos cuarto. It's 2:45. Note that you should say cuarto ("a quarter") instead of quince ("fifteen"). Learn to indicate whether the time is AM or PM. Spanish speakers usually don't say AM or PM, but rather use the words for morning ( manana ), afternoon ( tarde ), and night or evening ( noche ). Here's how to tell the time while indicating whether it's morning, afternoon, or evening: Es la una de la mañana. It's one o'clock in the morning. Son las seis de la noche. It's six o'clock in the evening. Son las cuatro de la tarde. It's four o'clock in the afternoon. Learn a few additional useful phrases. Even after you know exactly how to tell the time in Spanish, you can always improve your skills by learning a few basic phrases. Here are a few: Son las cinco más o menos. It's about five o'clock. Es la una en punto. It's exactly one o'clock. ¿Qué hora es? What time is it? 
Understand how to use the verb "ser" when telling time. Tell the time using whole hours. Learn how to indicate if it's midnight or noon. Tell the time using hours and minutes. Learn to indicate whether the time is AM or PM. Learn a few additional useful phrases. 