Asking about the Time in German

There are two common ways to ask about the time in German . You can say, “🔊 Listen Wie viel Uhr ist es? ” , which means literally , “What time is it?” . However , it is seldom used anymore . The more common way is to say , “🔊 Listen Wie spät ist es? ” , even though this only means , “How late is it?” .

Specific times can be expressed in two ways : exact form (“Four thirty-seven”) , or before/after form (“Twenty-three to five”) .

Exact form :

This form is the same as English . To say, “It is 10:15 a.m.”, say “🔊 Listen Es ist Zehn Uhr Fünfzehn ” . Notice the Uhr . This means “o’clock” , but is used in all exact times .

Germans use a 24-hour clock , like other countries in Europe and American military time . To convert to American time , if it is above 12 , subtract 12. So Achtzehn Uhr is the equivalent of (18 – 12 =) 6 p.m . in American time . To convert to German time , add 12 if it is p.m. (Except for 12 p.m..) 4 p.m. is therefore Sechzehn Uhr . If given an hour below 12, it is a.m .

The counting of hours starts from zero . So , in German , the time between midnight and 1 a.m. is 0:__.
11 p.m. would be 23:00 . Note that noon (12 p.m.) is Zwölf Uhr and midnight (12 a.m.) is Null Uhr . In
rare occasions , 24:00 might be used , which implies that you mean ‘that particular’ day (ignoring that in
fact a new weekday has started at midnight) So , if someone says “Montag, 24:00”, assume its at the end
of the day of Monday (Tuesday 12 a.m. midnight) . “Montag, 0:00” would be Monday 12 a.m. midnight .
Hours greater than 24 are never used .

“Noon” is said as “🔊 Listen Mittag ” , and “Midnight” is “🔊 Listen Mitternacht ” .

In Germany , it is also not uncommon in everyday contexts to use the 12-hour clock . In that case ,
“vormittags” (literally ‘before noon’) corresponds to a.m . while “nachmittags” (after noon) means p.m .
“Abends” (in the evening) is commonly used in place of “nachmittags” for times later than 5 p.m . (6
Uhr abends = 6 p.m.) Also , as in English , you can omit “vormittags” and “nachmittags” if it’s obvious
from the context . However , since this is nothing new (in comparison to English) , you will not be tested
on it .

Connected to time in German , Before/After the Hour :

• After → nach
• Till → vor

Use the same form as in English . For example , 10:57 can be said as, “🔊 Listen drei vor Elf ” . Likewise, 4:10
would be “🔊 Listen zehn nach Vier ” . Typically , use the smaller number with ‘nach’ or ‘vor’ . Don’t say,
“siebenundfünfzig nach Zehn” .

Note : This is only used with informal time telling . You don’t use ‘Uhr’ , and you forget all about the 24
hour clock . There are also a couple more words for :15, :45, and :30…

• quarter → Viertel
• half before → Halb
• quarter before → Dreiviertel (used mostly in eastern Germany, in most other regions you won’t be understood)

To express time in German , use these words just as you use other s, except that you don’t need a vor when using halb . For example ,
11:30 can be said as, “Halb zwölf” and 5:15 can be said as “Viertel nach Fünf” , 5:45 would be “Viertel
vor Sechs” or “Dreiviertel Sechs” .

Saying When You Do Something :

🔊 Listen Wann spielst du Football? ( Football means American Football . The much more popular soccer would
be “Fußball” , which lit . means Football )
To say you play a sport at a certain time in English , you would answer, “I play football at 3:30.” This is
all the same in German , with the translation of ‘at’ being um . That makes the above response “Ich spiele
Football um halb Vier.” or “Ich spiele Football um fünfzehn Uhr dreißig.”.

Times of Day in German :

In German and English , many times one would want to approximate , such as “tomorrow afternoon” .
Here are the German translations :

The words above can be combined into phrases like “heute Nachmittag” or “gestern Abend” . Note that
the time of day stays capitalized (it is a noun) and the day stays lowercase (it is an adverb) .