Learn how to tell time in Arabic
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Intro |
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| Michael: How do you ask for the time in Arabic? |
| Nora: And how do you tell the time? |
| Michael: At ArabicPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: during a school break, Sasha asks her classmate about the time, as she doesn't want to be late for her next class. Sasha asks, |
| "What time is it?" |
| كَم الساعَة؟ (kam al-sāʿah?) |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: كَم الساعَة؟ (kam al-sāʿah?) |
| Yomna Yaseen:الساعَة الثالِثَة والرُبع. (al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah walrubʿ.) |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: كَم الساعَة؟ (kam al-sāʿah?) |
| Michael: "What time is it?" |
| Yomna Yaseen: .الساعَة الثالِثَة والرُبع (al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah walrubʿ.) |
| Michael: "It's a quarter past three." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Asking the time is one of the most fundamental things to learn in Arabic. In this lesson, you will learn how to ask for the time and answer questions about it. Before you can ask for the time, though, you need to know the Arabic numbers. In addition, you should also learn the basic vocab related to time—such as hours, minutes, and seconds. We will cover all of those words and you can get some practice saying them! |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha asks "What time is it?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Sasha Lee: كَم الساعَة؟ (kam al-sāʿah?) |
| Michael: This is the most common phrase used to ask for the time in Arabic. Let’s break it down. The first word |
| Nora: كَم (kam) |
| Michael: is a question word used to ask about the amount of things like weight and temperature, and, in this case, it is used to ask about the time. Then, we have the Arabic word for "hour" which is |
| Nora: ساعة (sāʿah) |
| Michael: So this question literally means "How much hour?" If you wish to be more specific, you can also ask, |
| Nora:كَم الساعَةُ الآن؟ (kam al-sāʿaẗu al-ʾān?) |
| Michael: which means "What time is it now?" Here, we add the word |
| Nora: الآن (alan) |
| Michael: or "now" to avoid any confusion. To sound more polite, especially when asking someone you don’t know, you can instead say, |
| Nora: مِن فَضلِك، كَم الساعَةُ ؟ (min fadlik, kam al-sāʿa?) |
| Michael: Here, we added "Excuse me" in the beginning to make the question more polite. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha's classmate says, "It's a quarter past three?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Nora as Yomna Yaseen: .الساعَة الثالِثَة والرُبع (al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah walrubʿ.) |
| Michael: Most languages express time using fractions, such as "half" and "quarter." The same is true in Arabic, where the word for "quarter" is |
| Nora: ربع (rub’) |
| Michael: To say "a quarter to," you say |
| Nora: إلا الربع (illa arrub’) |
| Michael: To say "a quarter past" like in the dialogue, you say |
| Nora: والربع (wa arrub’) |
| Michael: Let’s hear once again how to say "It's a quarter past three." |
| Nora: .الساعَة الثالِثَة والرُبع (al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah walrubʿ.) |
| Michael: You can also use ordinal numbers when telling time, which is much quicker. For instance, you can just say, "It’s three fifteen." |
| Nora: الساعَة الثالِثَة وَخَمسُ عَشَرَةَ دَقيقَة. (al-sāʿah al-ṯaliṯah waḫamsu ʿašaraẗa daqīqah.) |
| Michael: Expressing time after the hour in Arabic can be a bit tricky. To do it, we use the word, |
| Nora: و (wa) |
| Michael: or "and" followed by the number of minutes. There are some exceptions you need to be aware of too. When telling the first minute after the hour, you can say |
| Nora: دقيقة (daqiqah) |
| Michael: which means "a minute." For instance, you can say |
| Nora: الساعَة الخامِسَة و دَقيقَة. (al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah wa daqīqah.) |
| Michael: which means "It’s five and a minute," or "It’s 5:01." The same rule applies if you’re reading the second minute after the hour. |
| Nora: الساعَة الخامِسَة و دَقيقَتان. (al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah wa daqīqatān.) |
| Michael: "It’s five and two minutes" or "It’s 5:02." In this case, however, we used the word |
| Nora:دَقيقَتان (daqīqatān) |
| Michael: which means "two minutes." The rule changes from the third to the tenth minute, in which case, we use the word |
| Nora: دقائق (daqa’iq) |
| Michael: or "minutes." For instance, you can say, |
| Nora: الساعَة الخامِسَة و ثَلاثُ دَقائِق. (al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah wa ṯalāṯu daqāʾiq.) |
| Michael: which means "It’s five o’clock and three minutes," or simply "It’s 5:03." Finally, you can just use the word for "minute" again after saying the number of minutes. For instance, you can say |
| Nora: الساعَة الخامِسَة و خَمسَة و عِشرونَ دَقيقَة. (al-sāʿah al-ḫāmisah wa ḫamsah wa ʿišrūna daqīqah.) |
| Michael: or "It’s five and twenty-five minutes" or "It’s 5:25." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned how to ask for the time in Arabic. You also learned how to say the time to the exact hour, past the hour and before the hour. |
| Expansion 1 |
| Michael: There are instances when you need to ask for the specific time an event will take place. In this case, you need to ask |
| Nora: في أَيِّ وَقت؟ (fī ʾayyi waqt?) |
| Michael: which means "at what time." For instance, if you want to ask "What time will the meeting start?", you can say |
| Nora: في أَيِّ وَقتٍ سَيَبدَأُ الاِجتِماع؟ (fī ʾayyi waqtin sayabdaʾu al-iǧtimāʿ?) |
| Michael: If you want to ask "What time is the bus leaving?", you can say |
| Nora: في أَيِّ وَقتٍ تُغادِر الحافِلَة؟ (fī ʾayyi waqtin tuġādir al-ḥāfilah?) |
| Michael: Finally, if you want to ask "What time will the movie start?", you can say |
| Nora: في أَيِّ وَقتٍ سَيَبدَأُ الفيلم؟ (fī ʾayyi waqtin sayabdaʾu al-fīlm?) |
| Expansion 2 |
| Michael: Perhaps you’re wondering what the Arabic word for "seconds" is or whether the Arabic language uses "o’clock" when expressing time. So far, we only know the word for "hour" in Arabic, and this is |
| Nora: ساعة (sāʿah) |
| Michael: We’ve also encountered the Arabic word for "minute" and its derivatives. What about "second?" That would be the word |
| Nora: ثانِيَة (ṯāniyah) |
| Michael: You won’t really use this a lot when asking for or telling the time, but it’s still good to be familiar with the term. As for "o’clock," we’ve actually used the word a couple of times already in our examples. It’s the word |
| Nora: الساعة (al-sāʿah) |
| Michael: This is the marker for time in Arabic and is always used when expressing time in the standard format, such as when you say |
| Nora: الساعَةُ الثامِنَة. (al-sāʿaẗu al-ṯāminah.) |
| Michael: "It’s eight o’clock," or |
| Nora: الساعَةُ الخامِسَة و خَمسَة و عِشرونَ دَقيقَة. (al-sāʿaẗu al-ḫāmisah wa ḫamsah wa ʿišrūna daqīqah) |
| Michael: "It’s five twenty-five." |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Arabic uses either the 12-hour clock, the 24-hour clock, or both depending on which Arab country you are in. In Arabic, the term for AM is |
| Nora: صَباحاً (ṣabāḥan) |
| Michael: and the term for PM is |
| Nora: مَساءً (masāʾ) |
| Michael: So, if you want to say, "It’s 2:00 a.m.," you say |
| Nora: الساعَة الثانِيَة صَباحاً. (al-sāʿah al-ṯāniyah ṣabāḥan.) |
| Michael: And, if you want to say, "Please be here by 4:00 p.m.," you can say |
| Nora: .بِرَجاء الحُضور بِحُلولِ الرابِعَةِ مَساءً (biraǧāʾ al-ḥuḍūr biḥulūli al-rābiʿaẗi masāʾ) |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Nora: !سلام (Salām!) |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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