Asking the Time in German
If you ask for the time in German you can either ask:
„Wie viel Uhr ist es?“ Which literally means ‘how many hours is it?’ OR „Wie spät ist es?“ – Literally ‘how late is it?’
Now of course this could be you asking the question, or someone else asking you what time it is. Let’s now have a look at the responses
Telling the Time in German
Es ist zwei Uhr. – It is two o’clock.
Es ist ein Uhr – It is one o’clock.
Es ist sechs Uhr – It is six o’clock.
Those were the simple, on the hour responses in a situation where you would know whether this was one o’clock in the afternoon or six o’clock in the morning. Where you would need to specify this, you can use the 24 hour system.
- Dreizehn Uhr – 1pm
- Zweiundzwanzig Uhr – 10pm
- Neun Uhr – 9am
Or you can indicate whether it is morning, afternoon, or night
- Zwölf Uhr mittags – 12pm
- Neun Uhr morgens – nine o’clock in the morning
- Drei Uhr nachmittags – Three o’clock in the afternoon
- Zehn Uhr abends – ten o’clock in the evening
- Mitternacht – Midnight
- Zwei Uhr nachts – 2am at night.
That’s the easy part done, let’s look at how you say the time when it isn’t on the hour:
- Zehn nach vier – ten past four
- Fünfundzwanzig nach elf – twenty five past eleven
- Kurz nach zwei – just gone two or literally “shortly after two”
- Viertel nach sechs – quarter past six
- Zwanzig vor acht – twenty to eight
- Viertel vor sieben – quarter to seven
- Kurz vor drei – almost three or literally “short before three”
OK we are almost there now and as you can see, much of it is similar to how we say the time in English. But as always with the German language, there is a twist to the tail. Let’s have a look at how they say half past.
- Halb zwei – half past one
- Halb neun – half past eight
- Halb eins – half past twelve
In German, it is said in the context of half TO the hour instead of half PAST the hour. This is why you have to think about the next hour coming up rather than the hour that has just gone. It takes some getting used to, and practising it is the best way to get the hang of it.