Times of the day
The times of the day are expressed using the verb ser (to be) as follows:
Es la una y veinte.
It’s twenty past one.
Son las tres y cuarto.
It’s quarter past three.
If it is one o’clock, the 3rd person singular form of the verb is used, and with other times the 3rd person plural form is used. The definite article is used with the hours. The times of the day are feminine because they refer to la hora (time, hour). Use la when talking about una (1 o’clock) and las with the rest of the hours.
Notice that hours are said first, then minutes.
- y = past
- menos = to
- en punto = o’clock
- cuarto = quarter
- media = half
Llegas tarde, ya son las nueve y cuarto.
You are late, it’s already quarter past nine.
Son las ocho en punto.
It’s eight o’clock sharp.
Son las seis menos diez.
It’s ten to six.
“Half past one” in Spanish is la una y media: the logic is the same as in English:
ÂżYa es la una y media?
Is it half past one already?
The preposition a is used with the times of the day:
Tenemos el examen de geografĂa a las diez y cinco.
We have the geography exam at five past ten.
Voy al trabajo a las ocho de la mañana.
I go to work at eight o’clock in the morning.
Official times can also be expressed in 24-hour time:
El autobĂşs sale a las 17:34 (diecisiete treinta y cuatro).
The bus leaves at 17:34.
Dates, months and years
To form dates in Spanish, use the following construction:
el + date + de + month
El estreno de la pelĂcula es el diecisiete de abril.
The film premiere is on the 17th of April.
Mi cumpleaños es el dos de diciembre.
My birthday is on the 2nd of December.
Note that in Spanish the date is expressed using the basic number, not the order number. An exception to this is the first day of the month:
Es el primero de mayo.
It is the first of May.
When talking about the month alone, the preposition en is used:
Tu cumpleaños es en junio, ¿verdad?
Your birthday is in June, right?
The years are expressed in the same way as any normal number:
mil novecientos setenta y dos
1972
dos mil veinticinco
2025
Note that the English system for expressing years is not used in Spanish. For example, it is not correct to say e.g. “diecinueve setenta y dos” for 1972.
Phone numbers
The Spanish language has many ways for telling one’s phone number, and it can depend on the region. You can tell your phone number by listing the numbers one by one:
cero-cuatro-cero-nueve-ocho-cuatro-cinco-tres-dos-siete
040 9845327
Especially in Spanish from Spain, it is also common to group some numbers in pairs, or sometimes in groups of three, and express them in tens/hundreds:
cero cuarenta, noventa y ocho, cuarenta y cinco, treinta y dos, siete
0 40 98 45 32 7
cero cuarenta, novecientos ochenta y cuatro, cincuenta y tres, veintisiete
0 40 984 53 27