How to tell the time in Italian
![](https://preply.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Online-italian-classes-820x470.png)
Whether you want to get together with your Italian friends for dinner, make a medical appointment or catch a train, knowing how to tell the time in Italy is key.
If you’ve taken Italian lessons online you should understand how to conjugate the verb essere (“to be”) and be familiar with Italian numbers. Both these concepts are essential to telling the time in Italian.
If you understand both of these things, in this article you will learn how to tell the time in Italian and juggle the many idiomatic expressions that Italians use to tell time.
There is no time to waste; so let’s begin!
How to ask the time in italian
In Italian, the word “time” is translated as tempo. Still, you will never find this term in sentences that tell the time in Italian. Tempo is used to refer to time in a general way, not related to Italian clock times:
- Oggi non ho tempo di andare in palestra. – Today I don’t have time to go to the gym.
If you want to discuss the time in Italian, you should focus on the word ora (“hour”) instead.
Che ore sono? / Che ora è? – What time is it?
To ask “what time is it?” in Italian, you can use the words ora (singular form) or ore (plural form), accompanied by the third person of the verb essere: è in the singular form, sono in the plural.
- Che ora è?/Che ore sono? – What time is it?
Potrebbe/Potresti dirmi l’ora? – Could/Would you tell me the time?
If you want to use an expression that sounds slightly more formal or polite, you can articulate your question like this:
- Potrebbe dirmi l’ora?/Potresti dirmi l’ora? Could/Would you tell me the time?
Potrebbe is the third person singular of the conditional tense of the verb “potere” (can). Potresti is the second person singular of the conditional tense of the same verb. Feel free to use che ora è? or che ore sono?: both are perfectly correct and sufficiently polite.
A che ora è…? /A che ora comincia…? – What time is…
If you need to ask the exact time when something is happening, you should use this structure:
A che ora + verb to be or to begin + subject of the sentence + ?
- A che ora è (la riunione)? – What time is (the meeting) at?
- A che ora comincia (la riunione)? – What time does (the meeting) begin?
- A che ora inizia (il concerto)? – What time does (the concert) begin?
In the first question, you can see the third person of the verb essere (to be): è.
In the second and third questions, you see two synonyms of the verb “to begin”: cominciare and iniziare.
How to tell time in Italian
Now that you know how to ask the time in Italian, it’s time (pun intended) to learn how to answer! To tell the time in Italian, the most common structure is:
Sono le… + number corresponding to the clock time.
For example:
- Sono le otto – It’s eight o’clock.
Sono is the third person plural of the verb essere (“to be”): we use the plural because hours are almost always expressed in plural form, but the word ore (as in sono le ore otto) is omitted; there is no need to specify it.
However, there are three exceptions to the plural declination of hours.
Midnight, noon, 1:00 AM/PM, and all their hourly fractions hold the third person singular form of the verb essere (“to be”):
- È l’una del mattino – It’s 1:00 AM.
- È l’una e mezza del pomeriggio – It’s 1:30 PM.
- È mezzogiorno – It’s noon.
- È mezzanotte – It’s midnight.
- È mezzanotte e mezza – It is half past midnight.
Hours and minutes in Italian
There are two systems for telling time in Italian:
- 24-hour system
- 12-hour system
24-hour system
For the 24-hour clock, we use the numbers 1 to 24 for hours, followed by the numbers 1 to 60 for minutes:
- 17:35 → Sono le diciassette e trentacinque – It’s 5:35 PM.
- 20:00 → Sono le venti – It’s 8:00 PM.
- 19:30 → Sono le diciannove e quaranta – It’s 7:30 PM.
- 21:45 → Sono le ventuno e quarantacinque – It’s 9:45 PM.
12-hour system
When using the 12-hour clock, use the numbers 1 to 12 for hours, followed by the numbers 1 to 60 for minutes.
If it is necessary to avoid confusion, we specify the time of day: di mattina (“in the morning”), di pomeriggio (“in the afternoon”), di sera (“in the evening”), di notte (“at night”).
- 17:35 → Sono le cinque e trentadue di pomeriggio – It’s 5:32 in the afternoon/PM.
- 20:00 → Sono le otto di sera – It’s 8:12 in the evening/PM.
- 19:30 → Sono le sette e mezza di sera – It’s 7:30 in the evening/PM.
- 21:45 → Sono le nove e quarantacinque di sera – It’s 9:45 PM.
- 02:00 → Sono le due di notte – It’s two o’clock at night.
Hours, minutes, quarters and halves
Like in English, hours in Italian can be divided into fractions: quarter hours and half hours. Here’s how to say them in Italian:
- Un quarto – A quarter of an hour.
- Mezz’ora – Half an hour.
- Tre quarti – Three-quarters of an hour.
To use these in a sentence, the structure is:
Sono le + number + e (and) + un quarto / mezza / tre quarti
- Sono le … e un quarto – It’s a quarter past…
- Sono le … e mezza – It’s half past…
- Sono le … e tre quarti – It’s three quarters past…
When we talk about Italian clock times in this way, we always use the 12-hour system.
- Sono le sei e un quarto – It’s a quarter past six.
- Sono le nove e tre quarti – It’s three quarters past nine (quarter to ten).
Also, remember that midnight, noon, and 1 AM/PM require the verb essere in the singular:
- È mezzanotte e mezza – It’s half past midnight.
- È mezzogiorno e un quarto – It’s a quarter past noon.
- È l’una e tre quarti – It’s three-quarters past one (quarter to two).
What about times that are more than half past the hour? In English, we say ‘to’, for example ‘twenty to’ or ‘ten to’ but Italians count the next hour “minus” the minutes it takes to get to it. For example:
- 9:40 → Sono le dieci meno venti – It’s twenty to ten. (Literally, “Ten minus twenty”.)
- 09:50 → Sono le dieci meno dieci – It’s ten to ten. (Literally, “Ten minus ten”.)
- 09:55 → Sono le dieci meno cinque – It’s five to ten. (Literally, “Five minus ten”.)
When it is fifteen minutes to the next hour, it is much more common to use the expression “meno un quarto”:
- 09:45 → Sono le dieci meno un quarto. It’s a quarter to ten. (Literally, “Ten minus a quarter”.)
Another way to indicate the minutes until the next hour is with structure:
Mancano + number + minuti (“minutes”) alle (“to”) + number
Mancano is the third person plural of the verb mancare (“to miss”), for example:
- Mancano cinque minuti alle sette. It’s five minutes to seven. (Literally, “Five minutes are missing until seven”)
Time of the day
Here are some tips for talking about the time of the day like a true Italian native.
Every day is divided into:
- Mattina. – Morning.
- Pomeriggio. – Afternoon.
- Sera. – Evening.
- Notte. – Night.
The beginning and the end of the day:
- Alba. – Sunrise.
- Tramonto. – Sunset.
- Dall’alba al tramonto. – From dawn to dusk.
Other important time vocabulary and phrases
There are also a plethora of expressions for talking about time passing in Italian. Here are the most common ones to expand your vocabulary:
- Ieri – Yesterday. → Ieri sono andata in spiaggia.
- L’altroieri – The day before yesterday. → L’altroieri ho fatto la spesa.
- Oggi – Today. → Oggi sono rimasta a casa.
- Domani – Tomorrow. → Domani vado in ufficio.
- Dopodomani – The day after tomorrow. → Dopodomani è il mio compleanno.
- Fine settimana – Weekend. → Il prossimo fine settimana vado a Londra.
- Questa settimana – This week. → Questa settimana inizio un nuovo lavoro.
- La settimana scorsa – Last week. → La settimana scorsa ho iniziato un nuovo lavoro.
- La prossima settimana – Next week. → La prossima settimana inizierò un nuovo lavoro.
- Quest’anno – This year. → Quest’anno inizio a fare sport.
- L’anno prossimo – Next year. → L’anno prossimo mi trasferisco a Barcellona.
- L’anno scorso – Last year. → L’anno scorso ho letto dieci libri.
- Questo mese – This month. → Questo mese devo risparmiare.
- Il mese scorso – Last month. → Il mese scorso ho speso molti soldi.
- Il mese prossimo – Next month. → Il mese prossimo farò un viaggio.
- Essere puntuale – To be on time. → Ci tengo a essere puntuale.
- Essere in ritardo – To be late. → Sei sempre in ritardo!
- Essere in anticipo –To be early. → Credo di essere in anticipo.
- Adesso/Ora – Now. → Adesso/Ora devo prendere il treno.
- Dopo/Più tardi – Later. → Ci vediamo dopo/più tardi.
- Prima – Before. → Ci sentiamo prima delle dieci.
- Alla prossima! – See you next time!
- Tanto/molto tempo – A long time. → È passato tanto/molto tempo.
- Poco tempo – A short time. → È passato poco tempo.
Tips and tricks to make telling the time in Italian easier
To quickly learn how to tell the time in Italian, knowing the numbers 1 to 59 is the golden rule. Once you know them by heart, you’re good to go!
A surefire trick to practice time expressions is to listen to the Italian radio because the time is repeated often during programs.
Train stations are also a great place to learn to tell time: megaphone messages constantly communicate train times.
Time-related proverbs and sayings in Italian
To impress your friends and show masterful familiarity with time expressions in Italian, here are a series of proverbs and sayings you can use:
- Non vedo l’ora che (succeda qualcosa)… → I can’t wait for (something to happen)…
- Il tempo è denaro → Time is money
- Il tempo vola → Time flies
- Chi ha tempo non aspetti tempo → There’s no time like the present
- Ogni cosa a suo tempo → All in good time
- Il tempo cura ogni cosa → Time takes care of everything
- Perdere la cognizione del tempo → To lose track of time
- La notte porta consiglio → To sleep on it
- Fare le ore piccole → Staying up late
Practice telling time in Italian with Preply
Feel like putting what you learned in this article into practice right away? Try completing the task below, and when you’ve written the answers, say them out loud too.
Put these times in writing using the 12-hour system:
- 1:24 PM
- 11:52 PM
- 06:05 AM
- 04:45 PM
- 08:23 PM
Put these hours in writing using the Italian clock times:
- 16:45
- 15:55
- 03:40
- 20:50
- 21:15
Practice independently is essential, but if you want to make real progress, nothing can compare to speaking Italian with native speaker.
Preply is the ideal platform to do this: you can get in touch with native Italian tutors online and take private 1-to-1 Italian lessons at an affordable price. Preply’s Italian tutors will give you all the resources you need to clear your doubts about time expressions nella bella lingua. Check out our resources for learning Italian online for free or book a 1-to-1 class with one of our native Italian speakers.
Conclusion
By learning how to tell the time in Italian, you will practice numbers and enrich your vocabulary with new idiomatic expressions that will make you sound like a native speaker.
Download the Preply app to start studying Italian online, non c’è tempo da perdere (“there’s no time to waste”)!
Next article
![](https://preply.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/thank-you-in-italian.jpg)
13 Ways to Say Thank You in Italian
We discuss the many Italian phrases you can use to express your thanks in different situations and for different reasons.
Previous article
![](https://preply.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Online-italian-classes-384x256.png)
How to say goodbye in Italian
Want to learn how to say goodbye in Italian? There is a farewell phrase in Italy for every situation: read this guide to discover them all.