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Telling the Time in Arabic Posted by on Sep 29, 2009 in Culture, Vocabulary

What is the time?

كم الساعة؟

It is half past ten

الساعة العاشرة والنصف

Telling the time in Arabic is very easy. We use ordinal numbers with hours, except one o’clock, as follows:

One O’clock

الساعة الواحدة

Two O’clock

الساعة الثانية

Three O’clock

الساعة الثالثة

Four O’clock

الساعة الرابعة

Five O’clock

الساعة الخامسة

Six O’clock

الساعة السادسة

Seven O’clock

الساعة السابعة

Eight O’clock

الساعة الثامنة

Nine O’clock

الساعة التاسعة

Ten O’clock

الساعة العاشرة

Eleven O’clock

الساعة الحادية عشرة

Twelve O’clock

الساعة الثانية عشرة

 

To say ‘past’ in Arabic, we use ‘و‘ which comes after the hour, so half past two in Arabic would literally be ‘two o’clock and a half’ الساعة الثانية والنصف

past

و

Five past

وخمس دقائق

Ten past

وعشر دقائق

Quarter past

والربع

Twenty past

والثلث

Half past

والنصف

 

To say ’to’ in Arabic, we use ‘إلاwhich comes after the hour, so ‘quarter to three’ in Arabic would literally be ‘three o’clock less a quarter’ الساعة الثالثة إلا الربع

To

إلا

Five to

إلا خمس دقائق

Ten to

إلا عشر دقائق

Quarter to

إلا الربع

Twenty to

إلا الثلث

 

Now, can you make these expressions in Arabic?

It’s five o’clock.

It’s half past ten.

It’s five to six.

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Comments:

  1. Carolyn:

    Great little article…. thanks!

  2. Kylie:

    Would you say 5:35 is :
    الساعة الخامسة والنصف وخمس دقائق

    • Fariha:

      @Kylie I just learnt something too!

    • Pearly Peaches:

      @Kylie Yeah ! Great

  3. Aziza:

    Ahlan Kylie,
    Exactly; this is the right way to say it.
    Salaam,
    Aziza

  4. 9oat:

    صور 
    صور 
    عالم الصور 
    صور مركز تحميل  صور
    بنات
    صور بنات 

    that’s really nice mate , hope to have one

  5. hunaida:

    great it really did help me understand inmy arabic lessons shukran aziza

  6. aishah:

    superb.

  7. aishah:

    thanks

  8. afzal:

    there’r mistakes:

    (in english as well as arabic!)

    it’s ‘A quarter to’ not ‘quarter to’

    in the arabic it shud b in the indefinit accusative case

    i.e.

    إلا ربعا

    twenty to:

    إلا ثلثا

    the arabs today corrupt language. in english e.g. they use an ‘e’ for an ‘i’ and an ‘i’ for an ‘e’ e.g. tarek insted’v tarik, tariq.

    falafel insted’v falafil.

    Sebawayh, we need u!

  9. muslim_afghan_adil@yahoo.com:

    there is no irab in arabic

  10. Aida:

    How would you say 11:01 and 11:11?

  11. randomly browsing person:

    Thanks a lot to Aziza, the creator of this article. I knew how to read the time before but had forgotten a bit, so this helped me and made me understand time better.
    Thanks a lot 🙂

  12. Sanaya K:

    very nice 4 these times
    very helpful 4 me
    thankxx for this 😀

  13. Anonymous:

    الحادية عشرة ودقيقة
    الحادية عشرة وإحدى عشر دقيقة

  14. SIM Karte:

    Thank you for any other informative website. The place else may just I am getting that kind of information written in such a perfect manner? I’ve a mission that I’m simply now running on, and I have been on the glance out for such information.

  15. Mustafa:

    How would you say 5:64?? and 4:55?? please help me..

    • Alerre:

      @Mustafa yes. i need to know how to write 5:50, 7:15, 4:45, 9:30 and 11:00

  16. Hannah:

    Hi

    Mashallah thx u have helped me too understand time for my test

  17. Ratna F:

    Thanks a lot Aziza, these help me to understand about time.

  18. Issac Maez:

    I just want to tell you that I’m beginner to blogs and certainly savored you’re blog site. More than likely I’m going to bookmark your blog post . You absolutely have great posts. Thanks a bunch for sharing with us your website page.

  19. Ahmed Ijaz:

    good, now i am certain to pass my arabic exam in pakistan,
    shukran

  20. Muhammad habeshi:

    Jazaakillah khairan, It helps me to understand more!

  21. Muhammad habeshi:

    Jazaakillah khairan, It helps me to understand more! Please send for me beneficial informations by email address.

  22. Ibrahim:

    BarakAllahufeeki

    This helped a lot.
    May Allah preserve you

  23. valdir bergamo:

    very good! But as I am learning Arabic, I need the vowel symbols (damma, faTHA, kasra,etc). If you do that in the future, it could help beginners like me and others a lot. God bless you!

  24. Marzuka:

    Jazakallah for this wonderful article aziza

  25. Mubeen Ahmad:

    Very Very Nice, Masha Allah, Jazakallah

  26. Student:

    How about vocalised versions of all the words?

  27. abid ali:

    time all in day include night

  28. Bilal ahmed:

    How to read 1:15 in arabic?