A1 - Lektion 23 - Unofficial Time

A1 Lesson 23: Time (unofficial)
Es ist Viertel vor sieben.

Es ist halb zwölf.
Es ist fünf nach zwei.
Es ist fünf nach halb vier.
Yes, this way of reading time is different from what we learned in the last
chapter. This is the unofficial way - let's learn further.
Hello everyone and welcome to our video series on learn German for
beginners.
In the previous lesson you learned how to read time in an official manner. In
this lesson you will learn how to read time in German in an unofficial
manner.
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the easiest way. We offer structured courses for A1, A2, B1 and B2 and a
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“Lektion 23” : inoffizielle Zeit
To be able to read time in German you have to be thorough with numbers. For
the same, we would recommend you to go through lesson 3 and 4 of our
video series. And also watch the previous lesson.
As we discussed before, inoffizielle Zeit is used when you're talking with your
friends or family. This is also known as Zeit in Umgangssprache. Once again,
Zeit in Umgangssprache.
So the question remains the same..

Wie spät ist es?
Don't forget to repeat after me.
Es ist eins. oder Es ist um eins.

Now in Umgangssprache there is only one way to say the time, irrespective of
the fact whether it's written in the format of a 12-hour clock or a 24-hour clock.
Let's do some more examples.
Here’s how you will say the full hour:

Es ist zwei.
You will also very commonly hear: Es ist um zwei.
Let’s see another one.
Es ist sechs.
Since Germans don't use AM or PM, it should either be clear from context or
you add words like morgens, abends, nachmittags, mittags to make it clear.
Es ist zehn. / Es ist abends um zehn.
And the next one is..
Es ist zwölf. / Es ist mittags um zwölf.
And when it’s midnight, you can say..
Es ist Mitternacht.
And this way you would read out for all the other hours of the day. Just
remember not to use UHR anywhere. Now let's do time with hours and
minutes.
Es ist fünf nach eins.

Don’t forget to repeat
Es ist zehn nach eins.
Es ist Viertel nach eins.

‘Viertel’ here represents a quarter of an hour.
Let’s go to the next one.
Es ist zwanzig nach eins.
As you must have noticed, the word ‘nach’ means after. Let’s see a slightly
different one now.
Es ist zwanzig vor zwei.
Es ist Viertel vor zwei.
Es ist zehn vor zwei.
Es ist fünf vor zwei.
As you all must have already noticed, ‘vor’ is used to represent before.
In some regions in Germany, eastern and southern, the word “Viertel” is used
in more ways: You might come across time being read as:
13.15: Es ist viertel zwei

(and not Viertel nach eins)
13.45: Es ist dreiviertel zwei
(and not Viertel vor zwei)
But these are sometimes not even known to Germans. It’s very region
specific.
Let's now move on. And look at some other possibilities of reading or telling
time, which you will more commonly hear.
Es ist halb zwei.

This is a special case and it's not like English. In German, you say ‘halb’ with
the next hour. In English it's half-past one which means thirty minutes past
one, whereas in German it's basically half an hour to two o'clock. So, you say..
Es ist halb zwei.
These sentences with an exclamation mark are not the same as in English.
So, you just learn them as it is.
Es ist fünf vor halb zwei.

Don’t forget to repeat.
Es ist fünf nach halb zwei.
Let's do some other special cases.
Es ist kurz vor fünf.
‘Kurz’ can be used whenever it’s one, two, three, four or five minutes before or
after an hour. For the same thing you can also say
Es ist gleich fünf.
Another variation is..
Es ist fast fünf.
The last three structures are used when it's about to be a complete hour. In
the other case, you would say..
Es ist kurz nach fünf.
Let's see another example..
Es ist kurz vor halb zehn.
And here you would say:
Es ist kurz nach halb zehn.
Let's summarize. One thing you have to remember, in the case of

Umgangssprache or unofficial time you don't exactly give the time of every
minute. It's basically a rounded off figure. When it's a complete hour you say
es ist sechs, sieben etc. When it's the half are you generally say es ist halb
sechs,halb sieben etc. Whenever it’s 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes past a specific
hour, you would say fünf nach, zehn nach etc as depicted in the figure in blue
color and whenever 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes before an hour, you would say
fünf vor, zehn vor etc as depicted in the green color.
Now, let's do an exercise to see how much you have understood.
Übung
Wie spät ist es?
And here’s the first one..
So, the answer should be..
Es ist Viertel vor neun.
Let’s do the next one.
And the answer should be..
Es ist zwanzig nach zehn.
And the last one..
Your answer should be..
Es ist kurz vor halb elf.
Wonderful ! Do let us know in the comments, what your watch or clock says
right now.
To practice what you have learned, you can download a free worksheet from
our page on www.patreon.com/learngerman
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Wiedersehen!

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A1 Lesson 23: Time (unofficial)

Es ist Viertel vor sieben.

You can also visit our page on www.patreon.com/learngerman to get free

“Lektion 23” : inoffizielle Zeit

So the question remains the same..

Es ist eins. oder Es ist um eins.

Here’s how you will say the full hour:

Es ist fünf nach eins.

Es ist Viertel nach eins.

13.15: Es ist viertel zwei

Es ist halb zwei.

Es ist fünf vor halb zwei.

Let's summarize. One thing you have to remember, in the case of

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