If is often said that German people are very pünktlich (on time), I’ve written a list of basic vocabulary to help you tell the time, and to ask what the time is in German so that you’ll never be spät (late)!

First of all here are a few numbers in German:

Eins                        One

Zwei                      Two

Drei                        Three

Vier                       Four

Fünf                       Five

Sechs                    Six

Sieben                  Seven

Acht                       Eight

Neun                     Nine

Zehn                      Ten

Zwanzig               Twenty

Dreißig                  Thirty

Vierzig                  Forty

Fünfzig                 Fifty

 

Here are the basics words and sentences that you will need:

die Zeit                  the time

die Uhr                  a watch/clock

Nach                      past

Vor                         before

Viertel nach        quarter past

Viertel vor          quarter to

Halb                       half

Wie viel Uhr ist es?                         What time is it?

Wie spät ist es?                                How late is it?

Es ist zwölf Uhr zwanzig               It is twelve twenty

Es ist viertel vor drei                      It is quarter to three

Es ist zehn nach neun                    It is ten past nine

 

And now for the tricky part:

If someone tells you to meet them at halb 12 you would meet them at half 12/12:30 right? Wrong. You would actually be meeting them at 11:30! In German if you say halb … it just means “half” and not “half past”. For example:

Halb eins = 12:30

Halb drei = 2:30

Halb elf = 10:30

So there are the basics of telling the time, hopefully you will always be pünktlich when meeting someone! I got the idea for this post from a friend who has a very interesting clock in their flat – eine bayerische Uhr. What makes this Bavarian clock so special is that it ticks rückwärts (backwards) and you have to read it spiegelverkehrt (mirror image).

 

The reason for this is because Willy Brandt (Politician and Leader of the Social democratic Party) said “in Bayern ticken die Uhren anders” (in Bavaria the clocks tick differently). Someone interpreted this and created the Bavarian clock.  If you are ever in Munich take a look at Isartor’s clock – and you will notice that the clock is indeed a Bavarian clock that ticks backwards!

Here is a photo of einer Bayerischen Uhr, leave a comment if you can figure out what the time is!

Larissa