Telling Time and Dates in Spanish: ¿Qué hora es?

Spanish tells the time with ser and the feminine article la/las before the hour — la una, las dos — because hora is understood. The basic pattern is es la una but son las dos. Add minutes with y or subtract them with menos. Dates usually put the day first: el 5 de mayo. This guide covers times, days, months, dates and years.

¿Qué hora es? Es la una, son las dos

Ask with ¿Qué hora es? Answer with ser + la/las + the hour. Una is singular, so one o'clock is the only hour that takes es; every other hour is plural and takes son.

En punto means “exactly, on the dot.” You don't need it every time — Son las tres already means three o'clock.

Minutes: y cuarto, y media, menos cuarto

Up to half past, add minutes with y. After half past, the usual pattern in Spain is to name the next hour and take minutes away with menos — so 3:40 is “four minus twenty.”

You will also hear times read straight off a digital clock — las tres y cuarenta y cinco, las tres y quince — especially for schedules and in Latin America. That's fine too; y cuarto and menos cuarto are simply the most common spoken forms in Spain.

¿A qué hora…? Morning, afternoon, night

¿Qué hora es? asks what time it is now; ¿A qué hora…? asks when something happens. A short answer uses a + la/las + the hour. A full sentence can include a verb: La reunión es a las diez.

To make clear which part of the day you mean, add de la mañana, de la tarde or de la noche after a clock time:

The boundary between tarde and noche varies by region and speaker. Optional vocabulary to recognize: a las tres de la madrugada means 3 a.m., before dawn. Without a clock time, “in the morning” is usually por la mañana in Spain; en la mañana is also common in parts of Latin America.

The 24-hour clock is standard in timetables, tickets, shop hours and official announcements, and you read the numbers as they are:

In everyday conversation most people switch back to the 12-hour clock: a las ocho de la tarde — or de la noche, depending on the speaker and the region.

Days of the week and months

Days and months are written in lowercase in ordinary date expressions. All days of the week are masculine; here they are in order from Monday:

To say “on Monday,” Spanish uses the article, not a preposition: el lunes is one Monday, los lunes means every Monday.

Lunes to viernes look the same in the plural (el martes, los martes); sábado and domingo add -s. After Hoy es… the day usually has no article: Hoy es martes.

With a whole month, use en, as in English: Mi cumpleaños es en mayo. (My birthday is in May.)

Dates and years

The usual date order is day + de + month. Use a cardinal number — cinco, not “fifth” (the first day is a special case below). For today’s date, Hoy es 5 de mayo is a standard model. To say when an event happens, use el: Mi cumpleaños es el 5 de mayo.

For the first day of a month, both uno and primero are correct. El uno de junio is more usual in Spain, and el primero de junio in Latin America. The holiday name el Primero de Mayo also occurs in Spain; a holiday name has capitals. In the usual day/month/year format, 3/4/2026 is el 3 de abril de 2026, not March 4.

Years are read as one whole number, never split into pairs as in English. Add a full date with another de: el 5 de mayo de 2026.

Common mistakes

Es and son mixed up. The verb agrees with the hour: una is singular, every other hour is plural.

English date order and capitals. Spanish puts the day before the month, links them with de, and writes days and months in lowercase.

Capitalize at the start of a sentence: Mayo es mi mes favorito. Names of holidays, such as Primero de Mayo, are another case; ordinary dates stay lowercase.

En with days. English says “on Monday”; Spanish uses the article instead of a preposition.

Years read in pairs. Spanish reads the year as one number, the way it reads any other.

Quick exercise

Fill in each gap with one word.

1. ___ la una y media. (ser)
2. ___ las cuatro menos cuarto. (ser)
3. La clase empieza ___ las nueve.
4. Tengo yoga ___ lunes. (every Monday)
5. Mi cumpleaños es el 12 ___ octubre.
6. Son las siete y ___. (7:15)
7. Son las ___ menos veinte. (7:40)
8. 2026: dos ___ veintiséis