Tell Time in German

Tell Time in German

Tell Time in German : Multi-thousand tips to make your life easier.

Telling time is one of the practical skills you need to learn when becoming familiar with a new country that uses a different language. If you find yourself in a German city such as Berlin or Munich, for example, you will need to know how to express yourself in German if someone approaches you. For instance, a fellow traveler or even a local might ask you for the time. Luckily, the numerical system is still widely used in these areas, but if you really want to blend in and show your effort to assimilate as much as possible into the local culture, it wouldn't hurt to go the extra mile in learning the language.

The phrase Es ist usually precedes any statement of time. It literally translates as 'It is.'

Here's how to tell time in German.

1. Just like most other people in the West, Germans tend to split the hour into halves and quarters. You rarely hear people give the time to the minute unless it's a very precise schedule such as a train trip or a flight. The German term for a quarter of an hour is viertel, while the term halb is used for half. To say 'half past the hour,' you say halb [the hour].

2. Most people also use the 'X minutes past the hour of Y' format when speaking English. Germans have a similar way of telling time. To express the number of minutes that have passed since a certain hour, one may say nach. To say that it's 2:10, one may say Es ist zehn nach zwei, which means 'It is ten past two.'

3. The same applies to the expression 'quarter past.' One can simply say viertel nach neun for 'quarter past nine.'

4. The opposite of 'past' is, of course, 'before' the hour. To express this, you may use the term vor. Viertel vor sechs, for example, means 'quarter before six.'

5. You may also use the German equivalent of the English 'o'clock.' Germans use the term Uhr between the hour and the minutes to mark the distinction.

6. Most television stations use the 24-hour military time format. Store and shop hours are also almost always posted in this format in windows and on signs.

7. There's no getting around this. To know how to tell time in German, you should be good at counting in German - or at least from 1 to 59.

Here's a list that can help you become familiar with the numbers.

• One - Eins
• Two - Zwei
• Three - Drei
• Four - Vier
• Five - Fünf
• Six - Sechs
• Seven - Sieben
• Eight - Acht
• Nine - Neun
• Ten - Zehn
• Eleven - Elf
• Twelve - Zwölf
• Thirteen - Dreizehn
• Fourteen - Vierzehn
• Fifteen - Fünfzehn
• Sixteen - Sechzehn
• Seventeen - Siebzehn
• Eighteen - Achtzehn
• Nineteen - Neunzehn

As you may have noticed, the pattern for the teens is simply to add zehn to the end of the first syllable of the number above ten.

For the twenties, the suffix -undzwanzig (e.g., siebenundzwanzig, achtundzwanzig) is added to the end. Twenty is zwanzig.

For the thirties, the suffix is -unddreißig. Thirty is dreißig.

For the forties, the suffix is -undvierzig. Forty is vierzig.

Finally, the fifties have the suffix -undfünfzig. Fifty is fünfzig.

It may be a mouthful now, but with enough practice and effort to tell time every time you get the chance, you will surely find it becoming progressively easier.