que hora é?

Telling the Time

Level 1

Ask Que hora é? (What time is it?). Say É a unha for one o'clock and Son as dúas, Son as tres and so on for the other hours.

How It Works

Asking. Que hora é? means "What time is it?". A que hora...? means "At what time...?". You will also hear Que horas son?, which asks the same thing.

Answering. Use ser, the feminine article and the number:

  • 1:00 É a unha. The verb is singular because unha is one.
  • 2:00 Son as dúas. 5:00 Son as cinco. Every other hour takes son and as.

Minutes. Add minutes with e and take them away with menos:

  • Son as dez e cuarto (10:15), É a unha e media (1:30), Son as tres e vinte (3:20)
  • Son as dúas menos cuarto (1:45), Son as seis menos dez (5:50)

Part of the day. Add da mañá, da tarde or da noite: Son as cinco da tarde.

At a time. "At" is the preposition a, which joins the article: a + a = á, a + as = ás. So á unha (at one) and ás oito (at eight). The accent tells á and ás apart from the plain article. See contractions of a.

For the numbers themselves, see numbers one to ten and numbers 11 to 100.

Examples (6)

  1. —Que hora é? —Son as cinco.

    What time is it? It's five o'clock.

  2. É a unha e media.

    It's half past one.

    É is singular because the hour is unha.

  3. Son as dez e cuarto.

    It's quarter past ten.

  4. Son as dúas menos cuarto.

    It's quarter to two.

  5. A que hora abre a farmacia? Ás nove.

    What time does the pharmacy open? At nine.

    Ás is a + as.

  6. Ceamos ás nove da noite.

    We have dinner at nine in the evening.

Common Mistakes

  • Using son with one o'clock.

    Son a unha.
    É a unha.

    Unha is singular, so the verb is é. Son is only for two o'clock and later.

  • Writing the article instead of the joined form ás.

    Chego as oito.
    Chego ás oito.

    At eight is a + as, which joins as ás with an accent. As without an accent is only the article.

  • Using masculine forms for the hour.

    Son os dous.
    Son as dúas.

    The article stands for horas, which is feminine, so it is as dúas.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

que hora é?Level 1Telling the Time

Learn This First

Clock times use feminine number expressions and a for at a time.

Words in This Pattern

que hora é