Reading time in German

Reading time in German
Reading time in German

Germans use two different questions for Reading time in German: “Wie viel Uhr ist es?” (“What time is it?” and “Wie spät ist es?” (literally “How late is it?”).

Similarly to English, the most simple answer is to state “It is…” followed by the hour:

  • “Es ist ein Uhr.” = It is one o’clock. 
  • “Es ist elf Uhr.” = It is eleven o’clock.
  • “Es ist siebzehn Uhr.” = It is 5 p.m.

For the full hour, the Germans put the word “Uhr” (“clock”) at the end. Notice the third example above and beware that Germany uses the 24-hour system. For any hour greater than 12 you subtract 12 to arrive at the p.m. time. 

Special full hours: Noon (12 p.m.) is “Mittag” and midnight is “Mitternacht”, also referred to as both “null Uhr” and “vierundzwanzig Uhr.” However, Germans commonly only use the latter for telling the full hour (“Es ist vierundzwanzig Uhr”) or for a time span ending in midnight: “Von zwanzig bis vierundzwanzig Uhr”.

Telling the exact time in German

For a starter, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Now, chances are it will hardly ever be the full hour when you ask or tell the time. Germans like to be precise! To tell the exact time down to the minute, you state the hour and then tag on the minutes:

    • “Es ist drei Uhr zwanzig.” = It is three twenty.
    • “Es ist einundzwanzig Uhr fünfundvierzig.” = It is nine forty-five p.m.
  • “Es ist sieben Uhr zehn.” = It is seven ten.

Note that the word “Uhr” appears in the middle between the hour and the minutes, not at the end. For telling the exact time, you have to know your numbers well, at least up to sixty!

Reading time in German

Congratulations, with all the above examples, you’re already able to tell every possible time in German! But as with English, German has more ways to state the time, and it’s important to understand these as well. It is very common to refer to the full hour with before and after, “vor” and “nach” as follows:

  • “Es ist zwanzig vor zwölf.” = It is twenty to twelve (twenty before twelve).
  • “Es ist drei nach achtzehn Uhr.” = It is three past 6 p.m.
  • “Es ist sieben vor neun.” = It is seven to nine (seven before nine).

Pay attention to the p.m. hours: you can drop “Uhr” for the morning hours, but not in the afternoon. Saying “dreizehn” instead of the full “dreizehn Uhr” (one p.m.) sounds odd. However, the minutes are optional. Both “fünf vor fünf” (five to five) and “fünf Minuten vor fünf” (five minutes to five) are fine.

Now, just like in English, the German language divides the hour like a pie into quarters and halves using “Viertel” and “halb” – which commonly substitute the minutes 15, 30, and 45:

  • “Es ist Viertel nach zehn” = It is a quarter past ten.
  • “Es ist halb acht.” = It is half past seven.
  • “Es ist Viertel vor eins.” = It is a quarter to one.

The main difference here is that Germans don’t use “half past” – instead they halve the next hour! “Halb neun” literally means halfway there to nine, so it’s eight thirty, or half past eight.

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