How to tell time

​What time is it? A clock can show you the answer!

Types of clocks

A digital clock shows the hour, then a colon, and then the minutes.

​An analog clock has two hands. The shorter hand shows the hour. The longer hand shows the minutes.

​Reading analog clocks

You can read an analog clock by looking at the hands. First, look at the hour hand. It points directly to the number of the hour or somewhere between that number and the next number.

​Then, look at the minute hand. The minute hand starts at the top of the clock. For every minute that passes, it moves one tick mark around the clock.

Start at the top and count the tick marks to see how many minutes have passed.

​This minute hand shows 20 minutes. So, the time is 20 minutes past 8, or 8:20.

​Let's try it!

​Time words

For certain times, you can use special time words. Look below to see how to use those special time words.

When the number of minutes is 45, you can say it is "15 minutes to" the next hour. You can also say it is "a quarter to" the next hour.

​When the number of minutes is 15, you can say it is "15 minutes after" the hour. You can also say it is "a quarter past" the hour.

​When the number of minutes is 30, you can say it is "half past" the hour.

​A.m. and p.m.

How can you tell the difference between 6 o'clock in the morning and 6 o'clock at night? Use a.m. and p.m.!

There are 24 hours in a day but only 12 hours on a clock. So, we split the day into two parts. The first part of the day is called a.m. The second part of the day is called p.m.

​At 6:00 a.m. you might be waking up.
At 6:00 p.m. you might be eating dinner.
Midnight is 12:00 a.m. Noon is 12:00 p.m.