Time!
I am always amazed by the fact that although most of us wear digital watches on which we regularly read 11:22 or 12:47, time is told in the Spanish text by the old fashion method: when the big hand points to the three and the little hands points to the four! That said, let us begin to tell time by the digital method.
The basic question in Spanish is ¿Qué hora es? / What time is it?
Using the digital method, to answer the question ¿Qué hora es? when our digital clock reads 1:00 we say: Es la una. / It is one o'clock. We make the point that it is one o'clock in the morning by using the term de la mañana. Thus, It is one o'clock in the morning / Es la una de la mañana; it is one o'clock in the afternoon / Es la una de la tarde.
Using the digital method, we add minutes as necessary. Thus, It is 1:05 / Es la una y cinco; It is 1:10 / Es la una y diez; It is 1:30 / Es la una y treinta; It is 1:35 / Es la una y treinta y cinco; It is 1:40 / Es la una y cuarenta; It is 1:45 / Es la una y cuarenta y cinco. Etc etc.
Europe uses the twenty-four hour clock. The digital clock is magnificent here. Thus, 1:00 pm becomes 12 + 1 = 13 son las trece; 2:00 pm becomes 12 + 2 = 14: son las catorce etc etc.
When we use the two hands (or old fashioned tick-tock method!), we divide the clock face into two halves. The first half, the right hand half as we look at the clock is the same in digital time-telling as it is in two hand time telling. Thus, to answer the question ¿Qué hora es? when the big hand points to 12 and the little hand points to 1 (one o'clock) we still say: Es la una. / It is one o'clock. We again make the point that it is one o'clock in the morning by using the term de la mañana. Thus, It is one o'clock in the morning / Es la una de la mañana; however, for one o'clock in the afternoon, we use de la tarde: it is one o'clock in the afternoon / Es la una de la tarde.
Using the two handmethod, we add minutes as necessary, for those first thirty minutes: thus, It is 1:05 / Es la una y cinco; It is 1:10 / Es la una y diez; It is 1:30 / Es la una y treinta.
When we reach the second half of the clock face, the left hand side, then the big hand starts to climb the hill and we have to change tactics! Now we add an hour and we take away the minutes. This is identical to the way we say twenty to two in English, except that in Spanish we say two minus twenty / las dos menos veinte. Since dos, tres, cuatro etc are plural, we also make the verb plural; es la una y veinte (1:20); but son las dos menos veinte (1:40).
Here is the paradigm for running round the clock from one o'clock to two o'clock!
Time Digital Two Hands 1:00 Es la una Es la una 1:05 Es la una y cinco Es la una y cinco 1:10 Es la una y diez Es la una y diez 1:15 Es la una y quince * Es la una y quince * 1:20 Es la una y veinte Es la una y veinte 1:25 Es la una y veinticinco Es la una y veinticinco 1:30 Es la una y media Es la una y media 1:35 Es la una y treinta y cinco Son las dos menos veinticinco 1:40 Es la una y cuarenta Son las dos menos veinte 1:45 Es la una y cuarenta y cinco ** Son las dos menos quince ** 1:50 Es la una y cincuenta Son las dos menos diez 1:55 Es la una y cincuenta y cinco Son las dos menos cinco
And, of course, five minutes later, it is two o'clock in both systems: son las dos!
* Note that 1:15 can also be expressed as es la una y cuarto.
** Note that 1:45 can also be expressed as (1) Es la una y tres cuartos (NB I have heard this colloquially in Mexico and Spain! The times they are a changing!) or (2) Son las dos menos cuarto.