Once we have had a throwback on our number’s vocabulary and rechecked them it is time to tell – what time is it?- .
Let’s see it and check the small differences from English then:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
1:00 → ES LA UNA
(IT) IS THE ONE
→ (IT’S ONE)
◊ Note:
- ES; in these times expressions we are always going to use the permanent verb to Be, SER, conjugated in 3rd person singular. You might think that time is a temporary expression, so, the verb to Be ESTAR should be used here. It is right somehow, and, time can be expressed with the verb ESTAR in a temporary expression, but for us, we will keep the verb permanent SER always when referring to time. Think that we are giving a permanent characteristic of the day in its different hours; Or even better, do not think much about it and learn it by heart; when giving time, we will always use the permanent verb to Be SER until we learn time expressions with the verb ESTAR.
- IT; in Spanish we do not have the pronoun IT. All the pronouns that we have seen (Yo, tú/usted, él/ella, nosotros, vosotros/ustedes, ellos/ellas) are personal pronouns that will be only used for persons, not for things. Then? Well, is easy; we do not use any personal pronoun in those cases and we go straight to the verb. IT, in communication terms, is already known, so, there is no need of using it; as a result, Spaniards do not have this pronoun. There are other pronouns that will help us in our expression, but, it is no time to see them yet. Just remember that we do not have the subject pronoun IT; go straight to the verb.
- LA; as you can see in the answer, there is the article feminine singular –LA-. Why is so? Numbers do not have articles as they are grammatically an adjective. Actually LA is used to refer to the noun feminine/singular HORA; LA UNA HORA. We do not tell the noun HORA because it is already clearly known that it refers to it, so, we just keep the article LA and the number UNA that it is needed to specify the time.
- UNA; as we have explained with the article LA, UNA is used as a number/adjective to refer to the noun feminine/singular HORA; LA UNA HORA. We do not tell the noun HORA because it is already clearly known that it refers to it, so, we just keep the article LA (feminine/singular) and the number UNA (feminine/singular) that it is needed to specify the time.
Let’s see it again then:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
1:00 → ES LA UNA
(IT) IS THE ONE
→ (IT’S ONE)
And here it comes another hour:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
2:00 → SON LAS DOS
ARE THE TWO
→ (IT’S TWO)
◊ Note:
- SON; in these time expressions we are always going to use the permanent verb to Be, SER. In this case it is conjugated in 3rd person plural because now, we are talking about more than one hour, so, it becomes plural. Remember that when giving time, we will always use the permanent verb to Be SER until we learn time expressions with the verb ESTAR.
- Remember that in Spanish we do not have the pronoun IT, and of course ,we do not have a pronoun for things in 3rd person plural . All the pronouns that we have seen (Yo, tú/usted, él/ella, nosotros, vosotros/ustedes, ellos/ellas) are personal pronouns that will be only used for persons, not for things. We do not use any personal pronoun when we are referring to a thing as a subject, and, in those cases we go straight to the verb. There are other pronouns that will help us in our expression, but it is no time to see them yet. Just remember that we do not have a personal subject pronoun for things; go straight to the verb.
- LAS; as you can see in the answer of the question above, there is the article feminine plural –LAS-. As we have explained before, numbers do not have articles as they are grammatically an adjective. LAS is used to refer to the noun feminine/plural HORAS; LAS DOS HORAS. We do not tell the noun HORAS because it is already clearly known that it refers to it, so, we just keep the article LAS and the number DOS that it is needed to specify the time.
- DOS; DOS is grammatically an adjective that is used to refer to the noun feminine/plural HORAS; LAS DOS HORAS. We do not tell the noun HORAS because it is already clearly known that it refers to it, so, we just keep the article LAS (feminine/singular) and the number DOS that it is needed to specify the time.
Let’s see it again then:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
2:00 → SON LAS DOS
ARE THE TWO
→ (IT’S TWO)
And previously:
1:00 → ES LA UNA
(IT) IS THE ONE
→ (IT’S ONE)
What do you think now when it is 3:00?
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
3:00 → SON LAS TRES
ARE THE THREE
→ (IT’S THREE)
Of course, it keeps coming grammatically in the same way as two o’clock, as it is a plural expression when we are telling the time from 2 onward. Therefore:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
9:00 → SON LAS NUEVE
ARE THE NINE
→ (IT’S NINE)
Or:
¿QUÉ HORA ES?
WHAT TIME IS (IT)?
12:00 → SON LAS DOCE
ARE THE TWELVE
→ (IT’S TWELVE)
⇒ This is a singular expression:
1:00 → ES LA UNA
(IT) IS THE ONE
→ (IT’S ONE)
⇒ From 2 onwards, it is a plural expression:
2:00 → SON LAS DOS → (IT’S TWO)
3:00 → SON LAS TRES → (IT’S THREE)
4:00 → SON LAS CUATRO → (IT’S FOUR)
5:00 → SON LAS CINCO → (IT’S FIVE)
6:00 → SON LAS SEIS → (IT’S SIX)
7:00 → SON LAS SIETE → (IT’S SEVEN)
8:00 → SON LAS OCHO → (IT’S EIGHT)
9:00 → SON LAS NUEVE → (IT’S NINE)
10:00 → SON LAS DIEZ → (IT’S TEN)
11:00 → SON LAS ONCE → (IT’S ELEVEN)
12:00 → SON LAS DOCE → (IT’S TWELVE)
Of course, we have to keep explaining time to tell a proper hour with minutes, but, for this post we have had enough of explanations. Let’s leave it for the next one.
