Introduction: How to tell the time in German

Hey its 9:00 AM! I need to rush to college. Its 7:00 PM, I need to board the train. Its 5 minutes past 8, I’m late for the meeting. These lines sound familiar? These are among many other ways, the terminology used to tell time. Of course, telling time is very important. Today you will learn the different ways on how to tell the time in German.

What is the Translation word for “TIME” in German?

• The German translation for “Time” is ‘die Zeit’.

Key Vocabulary for how to tell the time in German

To know how to tell the time in German, you need to know some German Vocabulary. You can start with some of the essential words mentioned below. This will help to express time, times of day and the days of the week.

The list below has the critical German Vocabulary with example sentences in German and translation in English.

What are the other different German wordlists

How to tell the time in German correctly to the hour using the 12:00 hour clock?

In this section, you will learn how to tell the time in German if it’s a whole number, like 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: The sentence structure to be used is “Es ist [XYZ] Uhr”. This directly translates to “It is [XYZ] o’clock”.

Note that there is no AM or PM.. It assumes that the person is aware that it is AM or PM.

Adding the following word depicts the day.

1. nachts – at night
2. morgens–in the morning
3. nachmittags– in the afternoon
4. abends– in the evening
5. Mittag– noon
6. Mitternacht– midnight

Examples:

How to tell the time in German correctly to the hour using the 24:00 hour clock?

In Germany as well as across most countries in Europe, the Germans mention the time using the 24 hour clock. For example:

How to tell the time in German accurately to the minute?

In this section, you will learn how to tell the time in German if it’s a whole number, like 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE: The sentence structure to be used is “Es ist [Hour Number] Uhr [Minutes Number]”. This directly translates to “It is <Time>”.

Let’s check out a few examples:

Notice that the above representation of time is very straightforward and simple. Although you would have also noticed that many of the above time in German could have been represented better or rounded off.

How to do rounding up of time to half hour in German? How to say “Half Past….” in German?

Similar to English, we can perform rounding up of time to half hour in German. If the time is 5:30, we would call it as half past 5. If the time is 2:30, we’ll call it as half past 2.

In German, there is a difference that it is expressed against the next hour. In the same above mentioned examples, the English translations are Halb sechs and Halb drei.

How to do rounding up of time to 15 minutes in German? How to say “Quarter Past….” in German?

• The key vocabulary you need for “15 minutes past” is “viertel nach”.
• “viertel” directly translates to “Quarter” and “nach” translates to “after”

Examples:

How to do rounding up of time in German? How to say “5 minutes to…” in German?

• The key vocabulary you need for “15 minutes to / before” is “viertel vor”.
• “viertel” directly translates to “Quarter” and “vor” translates to “to / before”

Examples:

Germany Time related facts

1. Germany has daylight savings time.
   1. This is called “Sommerzeit” in summer.
   2. The clocks are moved ahead by one hour in the spring
   3. The clocks are moved behind by one hour in the autumn.
2. Germans prefer to use the 24:00 Hour clock
   1. If the time is 3:00 PM, they prefer to say it as “15:00 Uhr”