Grammar ~20 min of the core left

Tell the time and talk about your day

After this lesson you can

I can ask what time it is, tell the time and say when I do things.

Start the lesson Core 18–20 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

4 min

What time is it.

What time is it? you ask about the time now
It's seven o'clock. 7:00
It's half past seven. 7:30
It's a quarter past seven. 7:15
It's a quarter to eight. 7:45

Be careful: half past seven is 7:30, not 6:30. English counts from the hour that has passed: "half AFTER seven". Some languages — for example German, Dutch, Swedish, Polish or Hungarian — count a half towards the next hour ("half eight" means 7:30 there), and this is exactly where people lose an hour.

Three prepositions of time.

preposition used with example
at an exact time at seven, at half past six
on days on Monday, on Sunday
in parts of the day and months in the morning, in May

Learn the exception as a whole: at night, not in the night.

Days of the week are written with a capital letter and take on: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

in the morning, in the evening, to the cinema — learn them as whole phrases, with the. The article the itself comes in lesson 14; for now it is just part of the phrase, like part of a word.

have breakfast, have lunch, have dinner — to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner. Here have is an action, not possession, so there is no got: I have breakfast at seven, not I've got breakfast.

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Common learner errors

written for your language
1

One word for three English prepositions

✗ in Monday

✗ in seven

✓ on Monday

at seven. Many languages use one preposition, one case ending or no word at all for every time: speakers of Arabic, Turkish or Portuguese often say in everywhere, and speakers of Chinese or Japanese often use one word for all of them, or none. English has three different words: at seven, on Monday, in May. You cannot guess them — learn them as a table.

2

An hour lost with halves

✗ half past seven meaning 6:30 → it is 7:30. For 6:30 say half past six. Learners whose language says "half eight" for 7:30 (German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Finnish) make this error. It is an expensive one: you come an hour late — or an hour early. (Careful too in Britain: in everyday speech half seven means 7:30, the English way.)

Pronunciation

3 min

Prepositions are unstressed in normal speech. at has a weak form /ət/, to has /tə/; in and on keep their vowel but sound short. Compare: I get up at seven — the stress is on the number, not the preposition.

o'clock is said /əˈklɒk/ — the first syllable is almost swallowed.

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Text

3 min

I get up at seven o'clock. I have breakfast at half past seven. I go to work at eight. I work from nine to six. On Saturday I get up late — at ten or eleven. In the evening I read or watch a film.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Gap fill.

  1. seven o'clock
  2. Monday
  3. the morning
  4. May
  5. night
Show the answers
at, on, in, in, at.

2. Matching.

  1. 7:30
  2. 8:15
  3. 9:45
  4. 10:00
Show the answers
7:30 → half past seven; 8:15 → a quarter past eight; 9:45 → a quarter to ten; 10:00 → ten o'clock.

3. Error correction.

  1. I get up in seven.
  2. I work on the morning.
  3. Half past six is 5:30.
Show the answers
I get up at seven. / I work in the morning. / Half past six is 6:30.

4. Word order.

Tap the words in order.
Available once the whole sentence is built
Show the answers
I get up at seven.
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Summary

Covered

  • asking the time
  • o'clock
  • half past
  • quarter past/to
  • the prepositions at / on / in

Next — lesson 11: how often you do things.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 11

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

18 words
  • time /taɪm/ hours and minutes (What time is it?)
  • o'clock /əˈklɒk/ exactly at the hour (seven o'clock)
  • half /hɑːf/ one of two equal parts; 30 minutes
  • quarter /ˈkwɔːtə/ one of four equal parts; 15 minutes
  • past /pɑːst/ after (when you say the time)
  • get up /ɡet ˈʌp/ to leave your bed in the morning
  • breakfast /ˈbrekfəst/ the first meal of the day
  • lunch /lʌntʃ/ the meal in the middle of the day
  • dinner /ˈdɪnə/ the meal in the evening
  • Monday /ˈmʌndeɪ/ the day after Sunday
  • Tuesday /ˈtjuːzdeɪ/ the day after Monday
  • Wednesday /ˈwenzdeɪ/ the day after Tuesday
  • Thursday /ˈθɜːzdeɪ/ the day after Wednesday
  • Friday /ˈfraɪdeɪ/ the day after Thursday
  • Saturday /ˈsætədeɪ/ the day before Sunday
  • Sunday /ˈsʌndeɪ/ the day after Saturday
  • night /naɪt/ the dark time when people sleep
  • read /riːd/ to look at words and understand them

Writing

Five sentences about your day, with times.

Example

I get up at seven. I have breakfast at half past seven. I go to work at nine. I have lunch at two. In the evening I read.

Checklist

The draft is saved on this device
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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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