Numbers, time and date

Time

German has two ways of asking what time it is:

1. Wie spät ist es? - What’s the time?

2. Wieviel Uhr ist es? - What’s the time?

Here are some possible answers, using times between six and seven o'clock.

Points to note

• For half past the hour (except when using the 24-hour clock), German looks forward to the next hour, not the past one.
• As in English, you do not use 'half past' when referring to times of the 24-hour clock in German. Instead, you would use 'dreißig' (thirty) as in the example below ('fünfzehn Uhr dreißig').
• The 24-hour clock is mainly used for travel times, but can sometimes be used in normal conversation.