Telling Time in Spanish ¿Qué hora es?

Before we address how telling time in Mexico varies from so-called standard Spanish, we will review the basics since the concept of telling time differs somewhat from how it is done in English. In the first place, Spanish speakers use the word hora or hour in place of the word tiempo or time, as is the practice in English. While English speakers ask the question, What time is it? Spanish speakers ask, ¿Qué hora es? (Literally, What hour is it?). It is important to note that the word hora is a feminine noun, and for this reason, the feminine form of the definite article (the) la or las must be used before the hour when stating the time in Spanish. Finally, the singular form of 'the' la is used for 1:00 and the plural las is used for all other times. This will make sense by reviewing a few examples. Notice the placement of the la or las before the number.

¿Qué hora es?

Notice in the above example that la becomes las after 1:00 because there is more than one hour and all adjectives, like la or las, must agree in gender and number with the word they describe or modify. Also, notice that in the standard format y or and is used after the hour and before the minutes.

Now that we've reviewed the basic textbook concept of telling time in Spanish, let's look at some variations used in Mexico and the southwestern portion of the United States. Let us go back to the question, ¿Qué es hora?. It is common to hear people ask this question in the plural even though this is not commonly taught in the textbooks. This is especially common in the afternoon. Thus, the question is sometimes heard in the plural as: ¿Qué horas son?. This question, though posed in the plural, means exactly the same thing, What time is it?

Another common variation in Mexico is the replacement of y between the minutes and hours with the word con or with. The word minutos or minutes is also often used with con to denote the minutes. For example:

¿Qué horas son?

Y or and is always used with media or half and cuarto or quarter.

¿Qué hora es?

Standard Spanish textbooks teach that after the half hour, one is supposed to go to the next hour and subtract the minutes that are lacking until that next hour. For example, to say the time, 8:50, in Spanish, most textbooks teach that the correct format is the following: Son las nueve menos diez. or It's nine minus ten minutes. While it is certainly acceptable from a grammatical standpoint to state the time in this manner, in my experience, this construction is rarely used in Mexico, Central America, or the southwestern United States by native Spanish speakers. To state the time this way might sound antiquated to native Spanish speakers in these areas. Nevertheless, this construction is taught as the standard by virtually all textbooks, once again affording privileged status to the Spanish of Spain. To avoid funny looks, it is better to count forwards as we do in English as this is the more common format used in Mexico, Central America and the United States by most Spanish speakers. In order to count forward as we do in English rather than backwards as they do it in Spain, we'll need to employ the verb faltar, which means to be lacking. This verb is conjugated with the minutes as the subject as in the following examples:

¿Qué horas son?

There are other ways of saying the times given above.

¿Qué hora es?

Finally, another common question that arises in conversations I have with others about telling time in Spanish is how the time can be converted to 'military time.' Actually, the format is similar to English except that the word hundred is omitted and the word horas is included. For example:

¿Qué hora es?