English Time Expressions Guide #

Review

1. 2019/12/08

This comprehensive guide covers the essential aspects of expressing time in English, including time points, centuries, years, months, and dates.

1. Time Point Expressions #

1.1 Basic Time Reading #

• All times can be read directly as “hour + minute”:
  • 6:10 → six ten
  • 8:30 → eight thirty
  • 2:40 → two forty

1.2 Past and To Expressions #

• For times within 30 minutes: “minutes + past + hour”

  • 6:10 → ten past six
  • 4:20 → twenty past four
  • 10:25 → twenty-five past ten

• For times after 30 minutes: “minutes + to + next hour”

  • 10:35 → twenty-five to eleven
  • 5:50 → ten to six
  • 9:49 → eleven to ten

1.3 Special Time Expressions #

• Half hour: “half + past + hour”

  • 11:30 → half past eleven
  • 2:30 → half past two

• Quarter hours (15 minutes):

  • 9:15 → nine fifteen / fifteen past nine / a quarter past nine
  • 3:45 → three forty-five / fifteen to four / a quarter to four

1.4 Additional Time Expressions #

• Exact hours: “It’s [hour] o’clock”

  • It’s two o’clock.
  • It’s twelve noon. (for 12:00 PM)
  • It’s twelve midnight. (for 12:00 AM)

• Approximate times:

  • It’s almost two. (nearly 2:00)
  • It’s not quite two. (not yet 2:00)
  • It’s just after two. (just past 2:00)

1.5 AM/PM Usage #

• Add “a.m.” for morning times
  • 6:13 a.m. → thirteen past six a.m.
• Add “p.m.” for afternoon/evening times
  • 4:00 p.m. → four o’clock p.m.

2. Date and Time Period Expressions #

2.1 Centuries #

• Using ordinal numbers: “the + ordinal + century”
  • 17th century → in the seventeenth century
• Using hundreds: “the + hundreds + s”
  • 1600s → in the sixteen hundreds

2.2 Decades #

• Format: “the + [decade]s”
  • 1930s → in the thirties of the twentieth century / in the nineteen thirties
• Adding period qualifiers:
  • Early: in the early 1920s
  • Mid: in the mid-1950s
  • Late: in the late 1960s

2.3 Years #

• Two-digit pairs: nineteen forty-nine (1949)
• Three-digit years: two fifty-three (253)
• Special cases:
  • 2000 → two thousand
  • 1902 → nineteen hundred and two / nineteen o two
• With “year”: in the year two fifty-three B.C. (Before Christ)

2.4 Months #

Note: Always include the period (.) after month abbreviations.

2.5 Dates #

• Multiple writing formats:
  • October 1
  • October 1st
  • 1 October
  • 1st October
  • (the) 1st of October
• Reading formats:
  • October the first
  • the first of October

2.6 Complete Date Formats #

1. Month/Day/Year:

   • January 17, 2002
   • January seventeenth, 2002
   • Read as: January the seventeenth, two thousand and two

2. Day/Month/Year:

   • 17 January, 2002
   • the seventeenth of January, 2002
   • Read as: the seventeenth of January, two thousand and two

2.7 Preposition Usage #

• Use “in” for:
  • Years: in 1989
  • Months: in August
  • Year and month: in August 1989
• Use “on” for specific dates:
  • on 2nd August, 1989

2.8 Prepositions for Time: On vs At vs In #

Understanding when to use “on”, “at”, and “in” with time expressions is crucial for proper English usage:

Using “in” #

• Long periods of time:
  • Centuries: in the 21st century
  • Decades: in the 1990s
  • Years: in 2024
  • Months: in January
  • Seasons: in summer
  • Parts of the day: in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening
  • Future time: in two weeks, in three months

Using “on” #

• Specific days and dates:
  • Days of the week: on Monday, on weekends
  • Dates: on January 1st, on the 15th
  • Special days: on Christmas Day, on my birthday
  • Parts of specific days: on Monday morning, on Friday evening

Using “at” #

• Precise times:
  • Clock times: at 3:30, at noon, at midnight
  • Specific points in time: at sunrise, at sunset, at lunchtime
  • Holiday periods: at Christmas, at Easter
  • Night: at night
  • Age: at the age of 25

Common Expressions #

• “in time” (before the deadline) vs “on time” (at the scheduled time)
• “at the moment” (right now) vs “in a moment” (very soon)
• “at present” (currently) vs “in the present” (in the current time period)