Learning to Tell Time

Clocks and watches have both a big hand to tell the minutes and a little hand to tell the hour. Look at the picture below. The hour hand is pointing to the 1, and the minute hand is pointing to the 12 (or 0 minutes). It is exactly one o'clock.

Another way to write one o'clock is 1:00. The symbol : is called a colon. It separates the hours from the minutes. The number on the left side of the colon tells the hour and the number on the right side tells the minutes.

To tell the time, you look at the hour hand first and then the minute hand.

In the picture above, the hour hand is pointing to the number 1, and the minute hand is pointing to the number 15 (look at the outside of the clock), so it is one-fifteen, or 1:15. You can also use the red hour marks to count the minutes by fives: five, ten, fifteen.

Notice that the hour hand is not pointing exactly at the 1, but has moved a little to the 2. As the minute hand moves all the way around the clock, the hour hand moves from one hour to the next. You will be using a program that shows you how the two hands move as we just described.

Most clocks only show the hour numbers. Some have no numbers at all. From now on, our examples will only show the hour numbers. The program that you will be practicing with has no numbers. You just need to remember where they are. If you forget, go back and look at the picture at the top of this page.

There are two types of clocks:

• A clock with hands, called an analog clock
• A clock with numbers only, called a digital clock

In this lesson you are learning to tell time on an analog clock. A digital clock tells you both the hour and the minutes using numbers, such as 11:35. Later you will practice telling and setting the time on both types of clocks.

What time does this clock show?

In this picture, you can see that the hour hand is pointing a little bit after the 2. The minute hand is pointing to the 4, so you know it is 20 minutes past the hour. Remember that you can count the minutes by 5's using the hour marks. The time on this clock is 2:20, or two-twenty.

Different Ways to Say the Time

You can divide an hour, which is 60 minutes long, into four parts. The parts are divided by the 0, 15, 30, and 45 minute marks as shown in the picture below. Each of the four parts are called quarters. In the table below, you will learn some ways to say the time using the word "quarter".

	o'clock
quarter to		quarter past
	half past

When the number of minutes is greater than 30, instead of saying the number of minutes after the hour, you can say the number of minutes before the next hour, or the number of minutes to the hour.

The following table shows different ways to say the time, including the word "quarter" and the word "to".

Practice Telling the Time

Try telling the time on this clock:

Click here to check your answer.

Try this one:

Click here to check your answer.

Sometimes the minute hand will point between two hour marks. You can count by 5's up to the hour mark before the minute hand, then count the minute marks up to where the minute hand is pointing. For example, look at this clock:

You count 5-10-15-20. Then count the minute marks: 21-22-23. The time is seven-twenty-three, or 7:23.

What time is it in these examples?

Click here to check your answer.

What You See on a Clock

Table of Contents

Learning to use the Clock Program

Last updated: Monday, 25-Aug-2003 22:18:36 GMT

Arcytech

Java Home Page

Provide Feedback