Maths
How do you tell the time on a clock?
Quick answer
To tell the time on a clock, read the short hand for the hour and the long hand for the minutes. When the long hand points to 6, it is half past the hour.
In one sentence
To tell the time on a clock, the short hand shows the hour and the long hand shows the minutes past that hour.
Explained
A clock face has the numbers 1 to 12 around it and two hands. The short hand (hour hand) moves slowly and tells you the hour. The long hand (minute hand) goes all the way round once every hour.
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Start with the easy times:
- O'clock: the long hand points straight up to 12. If the short hand points to 9, it is 9 o'clock.
- Half past: the long hand points down to 6. It has gone half way round, so 30 minutes have passed.
- Quarter past: the long hand points to 3, a quarter of the way round (15 minutes).
- Quarter to: the long hand points to 9. There are 15 minutes left until the next hour.
Each number is worth 5 minutes for the long hand, so you can count in fives from the 12: the 1 means 5 minutes, the 2 means 10, the 4 means 20, and so on. That is why the 5 times table is so handy here.
A tricky detail: at half past 9, the short hand is halfway between 9 and 10, not on the 9. Read the number it has just passed.
Digital clocks show the time in numbers. 8:20 means 20 minutes past 8. Some use the 24-hour clock, which counts the hours from 00 at midnight to 23. After midday, add 12: 2:30 pm is 14:30. On a 12-hour clock, am means morning (before midday) and pm means afternoon and evening.
Examples
| Analogue | Words | Digital | 24-hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| short hand on 7, long on 12 | 7 o'clock (evening) | 7:00 pm | 19:00 |
| short hand past 2, long on 6 | half past 2 | 2:30 | 02:30 or 14:30 |
| short hand near 11, long on 9 | quarter to 11 | 10:45 | 10:45 or 22:45 |
| short hand past 4, long on 4 | twenty past 4 | 4:20 | 04:20 or 16:20 |
Time is not decimal: there are 60 minutes in an hour, so 1:50 plus 20 minutes is 2:10, not 1:70.
Common mistakes
- Mixing up the hands. Fix: the long hand has the long job of going all the way round every hour; the short hand only creeps from one number to the next.
- Saying "quarter to 10" as 10:45. Quarter to 10 is 9:45.
- Adding time like ordinary numbers. Fix: count up to the next o'clock first, then add the rest.
Quick quiz
Telling the time
Check what you know with 5 quick questions.
Question 1 of 5
The short hand points to 4 and the long hand points to 12. What time is it?
Practise it
Try it
Telling the time worksheets
For grown-ups
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