The Hour (Eng)

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For mentioning the hour, there are 2 ways, the formal one and the informal, the most simple one is the informal, because you only need to say first the # hour, and then the # minutes, something like this:

04:15 pm = it's four fifteen pm.

But the formal is a little bit longer, inside this manner you have many options, now we are going to see the steps for the first one:

1. it is necessary to start with "it is" and after the rest.

2. you must say the # minutes first, after a key word and then the hour

3. the key words could be "past" or "to"

3.1. Past is normally used between the minute 01 until the 29.

ex: 5:16= it is sixteen minutes past five.

3.1.1. If you want you can use "past" for all the minutes.

ex: 5:48 = it is forty-eight minutes past five.

3.2. To is normally used between the minute 31 until the 59. when you use "to" it's necessary to say the minutes left for the next hour, and then the next hour.

ex: 6:52: it is eight minutes to seven

3.2.1. If you want you can use "to" for all the minutes, but you have to calculate the minutes left for the next hour and the next hour.

ex: 6: 10 = it is fifty minutes to seven.

There are some expression that are normally used whe we talk about the hour, those are...

12:00 = It is twelve o'clock

1:15 = it is a quarter past one

2: 30 = it is half past two

            it is two and a half

3:45 = it is a quarter to four