Wie spät ist es jetzt in Portsmouth?
Es ist elf.
(Reload for the current time in German!)
Quarter past/to and half past
The constructions required to express minutes "past" and "to" the hour in German are very similar to the English. The equivalent of "past" is "nach" (= after) and "to" is translated by "vor" (= before). The German word for a "quarter" is "das Viertel".
Grammar 4: Quarter past/to and half-past
Es ist Viertel nach zehn
(It is a quarter past ten)
Es ist halb elf
(It is half past ten)
Es ist Viertel vor elf
(It is a quarter to eleven)
Minutes past the hour
As in English, you will also hear a fuller version using "die Minute (-n)", the German word for a minute. It is more common to use it when you a giving a number of minutes which is not a multiple of five:
Es ist vierundzwanzig Minuten vor neun
(It is twenty-four minutes to nine)
Es ist siebzehn Minuten nach fünf
(It is seventeen minutes past five)
Using prepositions
Make a note of the prepositions used in the following key German time phrases:
Grammar 6: Prepositions in time phrases
um halb acht
(at half past seven)
gegen halb acht
(at about half past seven)
von zehn (Uhr) bis zwölf (Uhr)
(from ten (o'clock) to twelve (o'clock))
zwischen drei (Uhr) und fünf (Uhr)
(between three (o'clock) and five (o'clock))
