Deutsch · A1 · vocabulary · 4 minutes
Telling time
Ask and answer the time in both neutral and conversational forms.
Understand the choice
Conversational German counts halves toward the next hour. Keep clock reading separate from duration: Uhr for exact clock time, Stunde for an hour-long span, and Minute for minutes.
Core rule: Use um for an event time; German halb vier means halfway to four, 3:30.
Notice it in context
Es ist Viertel nach drei, und der Kurs beginnt um halb vier.
It is quarter past three, and the course begins at half past three.
Viertel nach drei is 3:15; halb vier is 3:30 and follows um because it schedules beginnt.
Der Zug kommt um acht Uhr pünktlich an.
The train arrives punctually at eight o’clock.
Um marks the time; Uhr states the exact hour; ankommen separates.
Wir warten seit einer Stunde und zehn Minuten.
We have been waiting for one hour and ten minutes.
Stunde and Minuten express duration, not clock time.
What to remember
- Regional phrases such as Viertel vier can mean 3:15; Viertel nach drei is widely understood.
- Seit + present tense describes an action continuing to now.
Common trap: Do not read halb vier as 4:30. It is halfway toward four: 3:30.