Quick answer
¿Qué hora es? Son las dos y media.
What time is it? It is half past two. Spanish counts the hours, so the verb is plural for every hour except one.
The words of this lesson
Why "son" and not "es"
The Spanish clock does not say "it is two". It says "they are the two hours" — son las dos — because the hidden noun is las horas, which is plural and feminine. That is why the article is las and the verb is son.
One o'clock is the single exception. There is only one hour, so it goes singular: es la una. Everything from two to twelve uses son las.
Minutes past and minutes to
Up to half past, add minutes with y: son las tres y diez, son las tres y cuarto, son las tres y media. After half past, subtract from the next hour with menos: son las cuatro menos veinte for 3:40, son las cuatro menos cuarto for 3:45. Exact hours can take en punto.
To place an event in the day, add de la mañana, de la tarde or de la noche: las ocho de la mañana.
Saying when something happens
The time it is uses ser; the time something happens uses a: ¿a qué hora comes? — como a las dos. Keep the two apart and half the confusion disappears: son las dos (it is two) versus a las dos (at two).
Where you are matters
Timetables in Spain are written with the 24-hour clock (<span class="es-inline">las 20:15</span>), and in Latin America you often hear <span class="es-inline">ocho y quince de la noche</span> in everyday speech instead.
Memory trick
Only one o'clock is lonely: es la una. Every other hour is plural, son las…
A short dialogue
Typical mistakes
Es las tres.
Son las tres.
The hours are counted as a plural, so every hour except one takes son.
Son la una.
Es la una.
One o'clock is a single hour and therefore singular, with la and es.
Son las tres y cuarenta y cinco.
Son las cuatro menos cuarto.
After half past, Spanish normally counts down to the next hour with menos rather than adding minutes.
Practice
Practise these telling the time
0/8 matched — tap a Spanish word, then its translation
Check yourself
How do you say "It is one o'clock"?