Take care of the minutes, for hours will take care of themselves ...
Let's look at ways of saying the time of day ...
Asking What Time It Is: What time is it? Have you got the time? What’s the time? What time do you make it? Do you have the exact time? Could you tell me the time?
Saying What Time It Is: There are the following common ways of saying what time it is. 9.00 nine o’clock 9.05 nine (oh) five or five past nine 9.10 nine ten or ten past nine 9.15 nine fifteen or a quarter past nine 9.25 nine twenty-five or twenty-five past nine 9.30 nine thirty or half past nine 9.45 nine forty-five or a quarter to ten 9.50 nine fifty or ten to ten 9.58 nine fifty eight or nearly ten o'clock
To tell someone what time it is, we can say "The time is..." or, more usually, "It's...". Here is a typical dialogue: Question: What time is it, please? Answer: It's nine o'clock.
Americans often write a colon between the hours and the minutes: 9:50.
The expression o’clock is only used at the hour. – Let’s meet at eight (o’clock).
Past is often dropped from half past in informal speech (for example See you at half eight. = …. half past eight.)
Day and Night
There are 24 hours in a day. The day is divided into daytime and nighttime. Every day starts at midnight. If necessary, times can be distinguished by using in the morning, afternoon or evening. In the more formal style we use am (= Latin – ante meridiem = before noon) and pm (= Latin – post meridiem = after noon).
The twenty-four clock is used mainly in timetables and official announcements. In ordinary speech, people usually use the twelve-hour clock.
Some useful expression: The clock is five minutes fast or slow. at exactly five o’clock at five o’clock sharp by five o’clock at the latest at midnight about five o’clock until ten o’clock before noon
Daylight Saving Time (or summertime as it is called in many countries) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn.
In which direction does the clock move? The clock moves ahead (thus, losing one hour) when DST starts, typically in the spring, and falls back one hour (thus, gaining one hour) when DST ends in the fall. To make it easier to remember which way the clock goes, keep in mind one of these sayings: “spring forward, fall back”. --> fall /US/ = autumn /UK/
Let's look at ways of saying the time of day ...