How to tell time in Italian?

To tell time in Italian, you use the verb essere (meaning to be). When the number of hours is plural, you would say sono le (meaning they are) + number of hours, for example at seven, you would say: sono le sette (meaning it is seven, literally lit. (the hours) are seven). On the other hand, you would use è (meaning it is) when the number of hours are singular or when using a word like “noon,” so at one, you would say è l’una (meaning it is one, literally lit. (the hour) is one), and at noon you would say è mezzogiorno.

Keep in mind this little difference and in no time you’ll learn how to tell time in Italian! In this post we’ll go through everything you need to know about asking the time, telling someone the time, and discussing the time of day in Italian. Let’s have a look!

To ask someone what time it is, in Italian we have two options. You can either say Che ora è? or Che ore sono? (meaning What time is it?). Both options are fine!

To answer Che ora è? / Che ore sono? you can use the 24 hour system (using numbers from 00:00 to 23:59, in which midnight is 00:00) or the 12 hour system (running from 1 a.m. to 12/noon, and then from 1 p.m. to 12/midnight.)

As mentioned before, whether you refer to the 24 or the 12 hour system, to tell time we use the verb essere (meaning to be) either in the third person singular è (meaning it is) or in the third person plural sono (meaning they are) + the definite article le (meaning the), which refers to le ore (meaning the hours), although the noun ore (meaning hours) is left implicit.

Let’s look at some examples on how to talk about hours in punto (meaning sharp/o'clock)!

Use sono le for all the hours of the day:

• Sono le nove.

  Translation: It’s nine.
• Sono le undici.

  Translation: It’s eleven.

Except in the following cases, when we need to use è (meaning it is):

• È l’una.

  Translation: It’s one.
• È mezzogiorno.

  Translation: It’s noon.
• È mezzanotte.

  Translation: It’s midnight.

Note that for l’una (meaning one), you use the definite article la, which becomes l’ because it is in front of a vowel.

• To use the 24 hours system to refer to the hours of the day, review the Italian numbers from 1 to 24:

  • 1:00 → l’una (meaning 1 a.m.)

  • 2:00 → le due (meaning 2 a.m.)

  • 3:00 → le tre (meaning 3 a.m.)

  • 4:00 → le quattro (meaning 4 a.m.)

  • and so on, up to ⇣

  • 11:00 → le undici (meaning 11 a.m.)

  • 12:00 → le dodici (meaning 12 p.m.)

  • 13:00 → le tredici (meaning 1 p.m.)

  • 14:00 → le quattordici (meaning 2 p.m.)

  • 15:00 → le quindici (meaning 3 p.m.)

  • 16:00 →le sedici (meaning 4 p.m.)

  • and so on, up to ⇣

  • 23:00 → le ventitré (meaning 11 p.m.)

  • 24:00 → le ventiquattro (meaning 12 a.m.)

• To use the 12 hours system to refer to the hours of the day, review numbers from 1 to 12, and add the following expressions when needed:

  • 6:00 → Sono le sei di mattina / del mattino (meaning in the morning)

  • 16:00 → Sono le quattro di pomeriggio / del pomeriggio (meaning in the afternoon)

  • 23:00 → Sono le undici di sera (meaning in the evening)

  • 2:00 → Sono le due di notte (meaning at night)

So far we have looked at how to talk about “sharp” hours. Now, let’s move on to adding minutes to the equation.

In Italian we can talk about minutes in two ways:

1. number of hours

   

   e

   Translation: and

   

   the exact number of minutes

   Sono le 20 (venti) e 18 (diciotto).

   Translation: It’s 8:18 p.m.

   Sono le 17 (diciassette) e 50 (cinquanta).

   Translation: It’s 5:50 p.m.

   To talk about minutes, we need to know numbers from 1 to 59. Here’s a handy table on Italian numbers for quick reference.

2. We can divide the whole hour into quarters like a pie and refer to minutes using certain expressions:

   • Refer to the minutes after the current hour like this:

     Current hour + …

     • …e un quarto (meaning a quarter past, literally lit. and a quarter)

     • …e mezzo/mezza (meaning half past, literally lit. and a half)

       Examples:

       • Sono le 9:15. → Sono le nove e un quarto di mattina.

         Translation: It’s nine fifteen a.m.
       • Sono le 14:30. → Sono le due e mezza di pomeriggio.

         Translation: It’s two-thirty p.m.

       

   • Refer to the minutes left before the following hour like this:

     Next hour + …

     • …meno un quarto (meaning quarter to, literally lit. less a quarter)

     • …meno + number of minutes up to about 20 → use this like “x minutes to…”

     So if it is 10:45 p.m., we can either say…

     Sono le undici meno un quarto di sera.

     Translation: It’s a quarter to eleven.

     Sono dieci e quarantacinque di sera.

     Translation: It’s ten forty-five p.m.

     Have a look at this graphic illustrating the expressions discussed above!

     

Now that we know how to answer the question Che ora è? / Che ore sono? (meaning What time is it?), let’s take a look at what else we need to tell a specific time, such as the time when something happens, like a train departure or the time of an appointment. To do so, we need the help of the Italian prepositions of time.

• To ask “what time?” questions and to answer them, Italian uses the preposition a (meaning at).

  • A che ora ci vediamo domani?

    Translation: When/what time are we seeing each other tomorrow?
  • Vediamoci alle 4:30 (quattro e mezza) di pomeriggio.

    Translation: Let’s meet at 4:30 in the afternoon.

  To talk about a specific time, Italian uses the articulated preposition alle (a+le) (meaning at) for all hours of the day, except for all’una (meaning at one), a mezzogiorno (meaning at noon), a mezzanotte (meaning at midnight).

  In all’una (meaning at one), the preposition is alla (a+la) since una is singular.

• To talk about opening hours and the duration of an activity, Italian uses the articulated prepositions dalle (da+le) and alle (a+le), and the noun ore (meaning hours) is often left implicit. Dalle…. alle… come in pairs as they are the equivalent of “from… to…” in English.

  • La farmacia è aperta dalle (ore) 8:00 alle (ore) 22:00.

    Translation: The pharmacy is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
  • Oggi lavoro dalle 9:00 alle 6:00 (di sera.)

    Translation: Today I work from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 (in the evening.)

  Remember to say:

  • dall’una and all’una

  • da mezzogiorno and a mezzogiorno

  • da mezzanotte and a mezzanotte

• To indicate a time range, Italian uses the prepositions tra/fra (meaning between) interchangeably paired with the conjunction e (meaning and):

  La lezione inizia tra/fra le 10 e le 10:15.

  Translation: Class starts between 10 and 10:15.

• Finally, to talk about an approximate time, use the following expressions that are all the equivalent of the English “around” or “about”:

  • intorno alle (a+le) ... (ore)

    La partita finirà intorno alle 23:00.

    Translation: The match will finish around 11 p.m.

  • verso le (ore) ...

    La partita finirà intorno alle 23:00.

    Translation: The match will finish around 11 p.m.

  • alle (a+le) ... circa

    Ci vediamo alle 7 e mezzo circa.

    Translation: We will meet at about half past seven.

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