In this lesson I will teach how to tell time in German. This lesson includes a ton of information about time telling including: half and quarter hours, vor and nach, and a whole lot more. If it is about telling time in German and you need to know it, this article includes it.
Asking for the Time in German
There are several ways to ask for the time in German. The first and most common option is:
Wie viel Uhr ist es?
What time is it? (Literally: How much o’clock is it?)
If you want to vary things a bit and it is at least evening time, you can say:
Wie spƤt ist es?
How late is it?
If you want to get a bit more fancy about it, you can use the more formal request:
Kƶnnen Sie mir bitte sagen wie spƤt es ist?
Could you please tell me what time it is?
You can also as if someone has the time. This phrase is a bit old fashioned. Also, be careful that you don’t mix it up with my second example below.
Haben Sie die Uhrzeit?
Do you have the time?
Haben Sie Zeit?
Do you have time?
Reading the Time in German
To tell time in German, you can simply put the word āUhrā between the German numbers for the hours and minutes. To say a full sentence, you can add āes istā in front of the time. Keep in mind that 1 oāclock is āein Uhrā and not āeins Uhrā. Also āeine Uhrā would be āa clockā, which is clearly not what you meant.
Es ist acht Uhr fünfzehn.
It is eight fifteen. (8:15)
Es ist sechs Uhr sechsunddreiĆig.
It is six thirty-six. (6:36)
Es ist zwei Uhr.
It is two oāclock. (2:00)
Es ist fünf Uhr fünfundfünfzig.
It is fife fifty-five. (5:55)
German Time Telling with “nach”
Use ānachā to say that the time is a number of minutes after the hour. You can also include āMinutenā in your sentence, if you like, but it is not necessary. You can also leave out the āUhrā when you form your sentences like this. If you leave out the word āUhrā with āein Uhrā it becomes āeinsā instead.
Es ist drei Minuten nach vier.
It is three minutes after four. (4:03)
Es ist elf Minuten nach ein Uhr. Es ist elf Minuten nach eins.
It is eleven minutes after one oāclock. (1:11)
Es ist vierundzwanzig nach drei.
It is twenty-four minutes after three. (3:24)
Es ist fünf nach acht.
It is five after eight. (8:05)
Es ist zehn Minuten nach zwƶlf.
It is ten minutes after twelve. (12:10)
Es ist fünfzehn Minuten nach drei Uhr.
It is fifteen minutes after three o’clock. (3:15)
Telling Time in German with “vor”
Use āvorā to say that the time is a number of minutes before the hour. The same rules as before (with regards to āMinutenā and āUhrā) still apply.
Es ist fünf vor sechs.
It is five til six. (5:55)
Es ist zehn Minuten vor zwei.
It is ten minutes before two. (1:50)
Es ist dreizehn Minuten vor sieben Uhr.
It is thirteen minutes before seven oāclock. (6:47)
Es ist zwanzig vor neun.
It is twenty until nine. (8:40)
Es ist fünfundzwanzig Minuten vor sechs.
It is twenty-five minutes before six. (5:35)
Es ist dreiĆig Minuten vor sieben Uhr.
It is thirty minutes before seven o’clock. (6:30)
AM & PM in German
What you may not have realized about all of those examples I just gave is that every one of them is in the morning. Thatās because the Germans use the 24 hour clock. In order to say a time that is after zwƶlf Uhr (12 oāclock), you simply count up to the next hour, dreizehn Uhr (13 oāclock), vierzehn Uhr (14 oāclock), etc.
If you have trouble with this, take any number that is over 12 and subtract 12 from it to get the hour in the 12 hour system. It is common to use the 12 hour system in conversational German, as you can tell based on context if you mean morning or afternoon, but any written or official time telling will be done in the 24 hour system, because there is no obligatory a.m. or p.m. equivalent like we have in English.
Es ist vierzehn Uhr dreiĆig.
It is fourteen thirty. (14:30)
Es ist zehn vor siebzehn Uhr.
It is ten before seventeen oāclock. (16:50)
Es ist dreiundzwanzig Uhr zwƶlf.
It is twenty-three twelve. (23:12)
Telling Time with half hours
In German, you donāt always have to give the precise minutes and hours of the day. You can split the hours into quarters and halves like you do in English. Unlike in English, however, the German phrase āhalb vierā doesnāt translate as āhalf past fourā, but instead āhalf until fourā. This is a bit disorienting at first, but is quite simple once you understand it. Here are a few examples to help you get acclimated to this idea.
halb sechs – 5:30
halb fünfzehn – 14:30 (2:30 pm)
halb eins – 12:30
halb zehn – 9:30
halb + vor & nach
A strange version of this would include the use of āvorā or ānachā and a number of minutes, usually 5 or 10. This requires you to do a quick math problem in your head if you are an English native speaker. āfünf vor halb siebenā for example would translate literally as ā5 til half of sevenā. āhalb siebenā is 6:30. Fünf Minuten before that is sechs Uhr fünfundzwanzig (6:25), so fünf vor halb sieben is actually 6:25. Here are a few more examples of this complicated mess.
fünf vor halb neun – 8:25
fünf nach halb vier – 3:35
zehn vor halb elf – 10:20
zehn nach halb dreizehn – 12:40
Telling Time with quarter hours
Just like in English you can use quarter hours to say it is 15 minutes before or after the hour. Simply use āvorā or ānachā like we did in all of the other examples with the word āViertelā, which is German for quarter.
Viertel vor drei
Quarter until three (2:45)
Viertel nach acht
Quarter after eight (8:15)
Viertel vor zehn
Quarter until ten (9:45)
Viertel nach fünf
Quarter after five (5:15)
Es ist Viertel vor zehn.
It is quarter until ten. (9:45)
Es ist ein Viertel vor elf Uhr.
It is a quarter until eleven o’clock. (10:45)
Es ist Viertel nach eins.
It is quarter past one. (1:15)
Es ist ein Viertel nach zwei Uhr.
It is a quarter past two o’clock. (2:15)
Viertel without vor or nach
There are also two weird ways to use the word āViertelā. If you leave out the words āvorā or ānachā, you have a similar math question to that, which we did with āhalbā. In these examples, the phrase becomes a quarter of the way towards a particular hour. For example:
Viertel elf – 10:15
Viertel neun – 8:15
You can also say ādrei Viertelā, which is three quarters of the way towards the next hour. This is by far the most confusing time expression my students encounter. Here are a few examples of it.
drei Viertel vier – 3:45
drei Viertel sieben – 6:45
Parts of the Day
Now that we have all of the time expressions out of the way, you can start classifying the times of the day into parts of the day. I mentioned in the previous lesson that there is no obligatory AM or PM in German, as there is in English. You can, however, classify the time of the day like this if you want. The words you need are āMorgenā (morning), āMittagā (midday), āNachmittagā (afternoon), āAbendā (evening) and āNachtā (night). For most of these, you can add āamā in front of them to mean āin theā. The only exception to that is āNachtā, which requires you to switch to the phrase āin der Nachtā. Here are a few examples of how to use these expressions in a sentence.
Es ist zehn Uhr am Morgen.
It is ten oāclock in the morning.
Es ist zwƶlf Uhr am Mittag.
It is twelve oāclock in midday.
Es ist zwei Uhr am Nachmittag.
It is two oāclock in the afternoon.
Es ist sechs Uhr am Abend.
It is six oāclock in the evening.
Es ist zehn Uhr in der Nacht.
It is ten oāclock at night.
Parts of the Day without Prepositions
You can use these words without a preposition (thatās what āamā and āinā are doing in those other sentences), if you add an āSā. If you use one of these words with an āSā at the end of it, it is no longer capitalized, as it is technically no longer a noun. If you use it with a specific time of the day, the meaning doesnāt change from what it was in the previous examples.
Es ist zehn Uhr morgens.
It is ten oāclock in the morning.
Es ist zwƶlf Uhr mittags.
It is twelve oāclock in the midday.
Es ist zwei Uhr nachmittags.
It is two oāclock in the afternoon.
Parts of the Day without Specific Time
If you use these versions without a specific time of day, it becomes a generalization about that part of the day. These words indicate repeated actions during those times of the day. In both German and English, you can start your sentence with these words. If you do that, you need to move the subject to the other side of the verb. I think of it as having the subject and verb attached with a string. They have to be next to each other, so if the first spot is taken by something else, in this case the time, the subject has to move to the other side. Unlike in English, however, you donāt need a comma between the time and the verb.
Morgens esse ich Brƶtchen mit Marmelade.
Mornings, I eat rolls with jam.
Mittags fahre ich zur Uni.
Middays, I drive to the university.
Nachmittags schlafe ich.
Afternoons, I sleep.
Abends lese ich.
Evenings, I read.
Nachts spiele ich Fortnite.
Nights, I play Fortnite.
Days of the Week
You can use both of these options with the days of the week, too. You can use them with āamā to indicate a specific Monday, Tuesday or other day of the week or you can use the days with an āSā at the end of the word to indicate a recurring action. . The same capitalization rules as before apply. If there is an āSā at the end of the word, it is not capitalized.
Montags arbeite ich nicht gern.
Mondays, I donāt like to work.
Am Dienstag schreibt er einen Brief.
On Tuesday, he is writing a letter.
Was machst du am Mittwoch?
What are you doing on Wednesday?
Wir suchen donnerstags neue Bücher.
We look Thursdays for new books.
Am Freitag rede ich mit meinem Chef.
On Friday, I am talking with my boss.
Samstags fühlt er am besten.
Saturdays, he feels the best.
Das Restaurant bietet sonnabends Rinderbraten an.
The restaurant offers roast beef on Saturdays.
Ich besuche am Sonntag eine Kirche.
I am attending a church on Sunday.