Times and Dates in Spanish

Telling Time in Spanish

To ask someone what time it is in Spanish, say this:

¿Qué hora es?
What time is it?

To tell someone what time it is use this formula:

son + las + the hour

Note: It’s also acceptable to write times in numerical format in Spanish
(e.g. Son las 7:00).

Think of it as telling someone how many hours there are (or have been) since 12:00. For example:

Son las siete.
It’s 7:00.

Son las once.
It’s 11:00.

One major exception occurs at 1:00. Since there is only one hour, switch to a singular verb and article:

Es la una.
It’s 1:00.

To indicate that the time is exactly on the hour, include en punto (“on the dot”):

Es la una en punto.
It’s exactly 1:00.

Son las siete en punto.
It’s 7:00 on the dot.

To express time past the top of the hour use y and the number of minutes:

Es la una y cinco.
It’s 1:05.

Son las dos y diez.
It’s 2:10.

Note: Don’t confuse cuatro (four) with cuarto (quarter).

To express quarter hours you can use either quince or cuarto (quarter):

Es la una y quince.
It’s 1:15.

Son las tres y cuarto.
It’s 3:15.

To express half hours you can use either treinta or media (half):

Es la una y treinta.
It’s 1:30.

Son las cuatro y media.
It’s 4:30.

For times greater than a half hour you can either add the appropriate number of minutes or skip ahead to the next hour and subtract:

Es la una y cuarenta.
It’s 1:40.

Son las dos menos veinte.
It’s 1:40. / It’s twenty to 2:00.

Check Out: Current Local Times in Spanish-Speaking Countries

Times past the half hour may also be expressed using para and/or faltar (to lack) like this:

Faltan diez para las dos.
It’s 1:50. / It’s ten to 2:00.

Son diez para las siete.
It’s 6:50. / It’s ten to 7:00.

Times in Other Tenses

Note: Use the imperfect tense when stating times in the past.

You are not limited to the present when talking about time:

Era la una de la mañana.
It was 1:00 in the morning.

En dos horas serán las once.
In two hours it will be 11:00.

Other Useful Time Expressions in Spanish

Note: AM stands for Ante Meridiem (“before midday” in Latin). PM stands for Post Meridiem (“after midday” in Latin).

Most Spanish speakers do not use “AM” or “PM.” To specify the period of the day you should add de la mañana (in the morning), de la tarde (in the afternoon), or de la noche (in the evening):

Es la una de la mañana.
It’s 1:00 in the morning. / It’s 1:00 AM.

Son las tres de la tarde.
It’s 3:00 in the afternoon. / It’s 3:00 PM.

Son las nueve de la noche.
It’s 9:00 in the evening. / It’s 9:00 PM.

For more information:
24-hour clock

Many digital clocks and printed schedules in Spanish speaking countries use a 24-hour time format for simplicity:

English:		Spanish:
9:30 AM	→	09:30
9:30 PM	→	21:30

Use mediodía to say “noon.” Use medianoche to say “midnight”:

Es mediodía.
It’s noon.

Es medianoche.
It’s midnight.

To ask when something will occur, use a que hora or cuándo:

¿A qué hora sale el avión?
At what time does the plane leave?

¿Cuándo viene Roberto?
When is Roberto coming?

To state when something will occur, use a las or a la:

El avión sale a las dos y media.
The plane leaves at 2:30.

Roberto viene a la una.
Roberto is coming at 1:00.

Dates in Spanish

Note: Spanish days and months are all masculine.

Note: Setiembre (abbreviated “set”) is also considered a valid spelling in some places.

Note: Some Spanish speaking countries use single letter abbreviations for days of the week:
D, L, M, X, J, V, S.

Note: In some Spanish speaking countries, Monday (lunes) is considered the first day of the week.

Month Names and Day Names

Before we begin, here’s a quick review of month names and day names (as well as their abbreviations):

Month:	Spanish:	abbr.:
January	enero	ene
February	febrero	feb
March	marzo	mar
April	abril	abr
Mayo	mayo	may
June	junio	jun
July	julio	jul
August	agosto	ago
September	septiembre	sep
October	octubre	oct
November	noviembre	nov
December	diciembre	dic

Day:	Spanish:	abbr.:
Sunday	domingo	dom
Monday	lunes	lun
Tuesday	martes	mar
Wednesday	miércoles	mié
Thursday	jueves	jue
Friday	viernes	vie
Saturday	sábado	sáb

Notice that neither day names nor month names are capitalized in Spanish.

To ask someone what the date is in Spanish, say this:

¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
What is today’s date?

The following questions will also work:

¿Qué día es hoy?
¿A cuántos estamos hoy?

To tell someone the date in Spanish, use this formula.

el + number + de + month + de + year

Note: You may also see dates abbreviated this way: 5-ene-77.

Notice there is a major difference between America and the Spanish-speaking world when formatting dates. In Spanish, the day comes first, followed by the month, and then the year (this is true of other English-speaking countries as well):

American format:		Spanish format:
July 4, 1776	→	4 de julio de 1776
September 15, 1821	→	15 de septiembre de 1821
December 7, 1941	→	7 de diciembre de 1941

There is no need for using a comma with Spanish dates.

Note: When working with dates, Spanish numbers are masculine.

You may also spell out numbers when writing:

el cuatro de julio de 1776
el quince de septiembre de 1821
el siete de diciembre de 1941

One irregularity to be aware of happens with the first of the month. Rather than saying el uno, we use an ordinal number instead, el primero:

American:		Spanish:
January 1, 2001	→	El primero de enero de 2001 or El 1ero de enero de 2001 or El 1º de enero de 2001 or El 1 de enero de 2001

This is only true for the first of the month. Don’t turn May 5 into quinto de mayo; it’s cinco de mayo.

Note: In some places you may even see month numbers written in Roman numerals: 7 / XII / 2020 or
7-XII-2020

When you see dates written in numbers only, remember that in Spanish, the day comes first and then the month (or you may find yourself missing some important events):

American:		Spanish:
7 / 4 / 1776	→	4 / 7 / 1776
9 / 15 / 1821	→	15 / 9 / 1821
12 / 7 / 1941	→	7 / 12 / 1941

See also: Numbers in Spanish

¡Ojo!

When saying dates in Spanish you may not break the year into two parts as we do in English; the year is treated as one large number:

year:	English:	Spanish:
1995	nineteen ninety-five	mil novecientos noventa y cinco
2013	twenty thirteen	dos mil trece

To include the name of the day, place it in front of the date and add a comma:

Hoy es jueves, el 21 de noviembre de 2024.
Today is Thursday, November 21, 2024.

Other Useful Date Expressions in Spanish

Note: Anno Domini is Latin for “the Year of Our Lord.”

In English, dates occasionally include “B.C.” (Before Christ) or “A.D.”(Anno Domini) to reckon the number of years before or since the birth of Jesus Christ. The more politically correct terms are “BCE” (Before the Common Era) and “CE” (Common Era). In Spanish they look like this:

English:		Spanish:
B.C.	Before Christ	a.C.	antes de Cristo
A.D.	Anno Domini	d.C.	después de Cristo
BCE	Before the Common Era	AEC	antes de la era común
CE	Common Era	EC	era común

To say “in a certain month” use the preposition en:

Voy a Guatemala en abril.
I’m going to Guatemala in April.

To say “on a certain day” use the definite article el:

Me voy el lunes.
I leave on Monday.

Me voy el tres de abril.
I leave on April 3.

Notes on Times and Dates in Spanish

Of the 22 Spanish-speaking countries in the world, only the U.S., Spain, Chile, and Uruguay participate in Daylight Savings Time.

To a North American it may seem that Hispanics have a very relaxed view of times and deadlines. While airline, train, and TV schedules tend to be punctual, informal gatherings may not actually begin until an hour or more after the agreed upon time. A meeting scheduled for 6:00 may not get started until 7:30. If a Spanish speaker asks to meet with you a las siete, it may be more accurate to think that you’ve been asked to come no earlier than 7:00. Sometimes the word mañana may be better translated as “not today.”

More Useful Words for Times and Dates in Spanish

anteayer	the day before yesterday
ayer	yesterday
anoche	last night
hoy	today
esta noche	tonight
mañana	tomorrow
el segundo	second
el minuto	minute
la hora	hour
el día	day
la semana	week
el mes	month
el año	year
la década	decade
el siglo	century
el milenio	millennium
pasado, pasada	past, last
próximo, próxima	next
último, última	last