Telling Time: Hours, Half Hours and Minutes

Two hands

A clock has two hands. The short hand shows the hour. The long hand shows the minutes.

When the long hand points at $12$, the time is right on the hour. Here the short hand points at $3$. It is three o’clock, written $3{:}00$.

Half past the hour

Now the long hand has gone halfway around, to the $6$. Half an hour has passed. That is $30$ minutes.

It is half past three, written $3{:}30$.

Why the short hand is between two numbers

The short hand does not jump from $3$ to $4$. It moves slowly all through the hour.

At $3{:}00$ it is on the $3$. By $4{:}00$ it gets to the $4$. So at $3{:}30$, halfway through the hour, it is halfway between the $3$ and the $4$.

The hour is the number the short hand has passed. At $3{:}30$ that is still $3$.

Minutes by fives

The long hand goes around once in $60$ minutes. Each number it passes is $5$ more minutes.

To read the minutes, count by fives from the $12$ to the long hand: $5$, $10$, $15$, $20$, $25$. The short hand has passed the $4$.

It is $4{:}25$.

a.m. and p.m.

The hour hand goes around the clock twice each day. So $7{:}00$ happens twice: once in the morning and once at night.

• a.m. means from midnight to noon: the night and the morning.
• p.m. means from noon to midnight: the afternoon and the evening.

You might wake up at $7{:}00$ a.m. and eat dinner at $6{:}00$ p.m.

Worked examples

Common mistakes

Practice problems