CHAPTER 7
Time and Dates
Hora y fechas

What Time Is It?—¿Qué hora es?

Telling time in Spanish is very easy, as long as you know your numbers. Good thing you’re a numbers expert since reading Chapter 1, right? If you need to refresh your memory, go back and revisit that part of the book for a few minutes.

To ask what time it is, just say ¿Qué hora es? Then to answer, you say son las and then the number. Here are some example answers:

English	Spanish
It's two o'clock.	Son las dos.
It's three o'clock.	Son las tres.

To say that it’s something thirty, use media (half).

English	Spanish
It's 3:30.	Son las tres y media.
It's 4:30.	Son las cuatro y media.

When you’re talking about time the word “quarter” means a span of fifteen minutes. To say that it’s quarter after or quarter to in Spanish, use y cuarto (quarter after) or menos cuarto (quarter to).

English	Spanish
It's 5:15.	Son las cinco y cuarto.
It's 6:15.	Son las seis y cuarto.
It's 6:45.	Son las siete menos cuarto.
It's 7:45.	Son las ocho menos cuarto.

For other times, like ten after and five to, you’ll use either y (if it’s time added on to the hour) or menos (if it’s time substracted from the hour), plus the the number.

English	Spanish
It's 8:10.	Son las ocho y diez.
It's 9:20.	Son las nueve y veinte.
It's 10:55.	Son las once menos cinco.
It's 11:40.	Son las doce menos veinte.

Talking about “A.M.” and “P.M.” is a little different in Spanish. For A.M., you can use de la mañana (in the morning): Son las seis de la mañana (It’s six A.M.) But for P.M., you have two choices: de la tarde (in the afternoon), when talking about anywhere from noon to about 6 P.M., and de la noche (in the evening or at night), for 6 P.M. to midnight. Here are some examples:

English	Spanish
It's one P.M. It's one in the	Es la una de la tarde.
afternoon.
It's seven P.M. It's seven in	Son las seis de la noche.
the evening.
It's eleven P.M. It's eleven	Son las once de la noche.
at night.

Schedules, such as for buses and trains, often talk about time using a 24-hour clock. 1 A.M. to 12 noon are easy enough, and then after that, you just continue counting up: 1 P.M. = 13, 2 P.M. = 14, etc., all the way up to midnight — 24.

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

There are three occasions where you use es instead of son when you’re talking about time: It’s one o’clock—Es la una. It’s noon—Es mediodía. It’s midnight—Es medianoche. Also, if you want to say that something will be happening at a certain time, you use the word a, which means “at” in Spanish. For example, “at seven o’clock” is a las siete.

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

The Spanish week starts on Monday instead of Sunday. In addition, days of the week are not capitalized in Spanish the way they are in English.

Days, months, and seasons—
Días, meses y estaciones

The Spanish days of the week are very different from the English ones:

English	Spanish
Monday	lunes
Tuesday	martes
Wednesday	miércoles
Thursday	jueves
Friday	viernes
Saturday	sábado
Sunday	domingo

Now that you know how to tell time and say the days of the week in Spanish, it’s time to practice what you’ve learned. Make a schedule of your typical day, with the times and everything you do written in Spanish. For example, you might list waking up in the morning, eating breakfast, and taking a shower before school. Revisit the section called Everyday Actions—Todos los días in Chapter 5 if you need help remembering how to say certain daily activities. Here’s a sample of what one entry in your schedule might look like:

El día (day)	La hora (time)	La actividad (activity)
lunes	a las siete de la mañana	despertarse

Here are the words for the months of the year — los meses del año:

English	Spanish
January	enero
February	febrero
March	marzo
April	abril
May	mayo
June	junio
July	julio
August	agosto
September	septiembre
October	octubre
November	noviembre
December	diciembre

Here are the words for the four seasons in Spanish:

English	Spanish
spring	la primavera
summer	el verano
autumn	el otoño
winter	el invierno

What’s your favorite season of the year? Why? A little later in this chapter, you’ll learn how to talk about weather. This will help you describe your favorite season to your friends!

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

Like days of the week, months are not capitalized in Spanish. Of course, if the day of the week or the month comes at the beginning of the sentence, it would be capitalized: Fui a España en mayo (I went to Spain in May). Agosto tiene treinta y un días (There are thirty-one days in August).

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

Here are three things that are different about dates in Spanish: (1) The definite article (el) is used in front of the date; (2) The number always goes in front of the month; (3) De goes between the date and month.

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

To ask what day (of the week) it is, say ¿Qué día es hoy? Then to answer, you just use Es plus the day of the week. For example: Es lunes (It’s Monday); Es sábado (It’s Saturday).

What’s Today’s Date?—¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?

Talking about the date in Spanish is a little bit tricky. To ask What’s the date? say ¿Cuál es la fecha? Then you can answer with Es el (It is) plus the date.

Here are some examples:

English	Spanish
It's October 2.	Es el 2 de octubre.
It's March 15.	Es el 15 de marzo.
It's December 31.	Es el 31 de diciembre.

On the first day of the month, instead of saying uno, in Spanish you say primero, just like how in English you’d say January 1st, not January 1.

English	Spanish
It's May 1st.	Es el primero de mayo.
It's July 1st.	Es el primero de julio.

When you write the short form of the date in Spanish, the day still goes before the month:

English	Spanish
May 30 (5/30)	mayo 30 (30/5)
January 20 (1/20)	enero 20 (20/1)

Some dates can be really tricky:

English	Spanish
February 3 (2/3)	febrero 3 (3/2)
March 2 (3/2)	marzo 2 (2/3)

So, you really need to remember that the day goes first in Spanish, otherwise you might get the date completely wrong!

Weather—Tiempo

To talk about the weather, you need to learn a new verb: hacer. When followed by weather words related to temperature and the sky, hacer means “to be.” And the only conjugation you need is hace (it is). Here are some important sentences to know:

English	Spanish
How's the weather?	¿Qué tiempo hace?
It's bad weather.	Hace mal tiempo.
It's cold.	Hace frío
It's cool.	Hace fresco.
It's hot.	Hace calor.
It's nice out.	Hace buen tiempo.

As always, there are exceptions. There are times when the verb hace doesn’t work. In those cases you need to use different verbs. Here are some examples:

It's cloudy.	Está nublado.
It's sunny.	Hay sol o está soleado.
It's foggy.	Hay neblina.

To talk about specific temperatures, you’ll also use hace:

English	Spanish
It's 10 degrees.	Hace diez grados.
It's 5 degrees below zero.	Hace cinco grados bajo cero.

For rain, snow, and hail, you need to use está (it is):

English	Spanish
It's raining.	Está lloviendo.
It's snowing.	Está nevando.
It's hailing.	Está cayendo granizo.

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

For temperatures, most countries use Celsius, which can be confusing if you’re not used to it. To convert from Fahrenheit to Celsius, take the Fahrenheit temperature, subtract 30, and divide by 2. This will give you an approximate Celsi-sus temperature. For example, 70ºF - 30 = 40 ÷ 2 = 20ºC. To convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, it’s just the opposite: multiply by 2 and add 30: 10ºC × 2 = 20 + 30 = 50ºF.

Diversión—Fun Stuff

Make a calendar using all of your new vocabulary, either with a pen and paper or on the computer. Make a page for each month and label the months and days of the week in Spanish, then add all of the holidays celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries as well as in your own. And don’t forget birthdays!

And finally, when you want to say that there is a very severe weather condition like a blizzard, you use hay (there is) plus the word:

English	Spanish
blizzard	una ventisca
drought	una sequía
flood	una inundación
hurricane	un huracán
tornado	un tornado

Holidays—Días festivos

Everybody likes to celebrate, but holidays are not the same in every country. Here are some holidays that are celebrated in the United States as well as in many Spanish-speaking countries:

English	Spanish
Christmas	la Navidad
Christmas Eve	la Nochebuena
Easter	la Pascua
Father's Day	el Día del Padre
Mother's Day	el Día de la Madre
New Year's	el Año Nuevo
New Year's Eve	la Nochevieja
Valentine's Day	el Día de San Valentín

Here are some dates that are special to Spanish speakers.

• January 6—Día de los Reyes Magos: The celebration of Three Kings Day, also know as Epifanía (Epiphany), is important in Catholic countries such as Spain and Latin America. This is often another day for kids to get presents, just like on Christmas.

• May 5—Cinco de Mayo: Cinco de Mayo, which of course means May 5th, is a celebration of Mexico’s defeat of the French in 1862. It is celebrated in parts of Mexico as well as cities in the United States with large Mexican populations.

• November 1—Día de los Muertos: Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican celebration in honor of friends and loved ones who have died.

• Holy Week—Semana Santa: Semana Santa is an 8-day celebration, from Palm Sunday to Easter Monday, in many Catholic countries, including Spain, and Latin America.

Birthdays—Cumpleaños

For many people, birthdays are the most special days of all! Here are some useful phrases for talking about your own birthday, as well as those of your friends and family.

English	Spanish
birthday	el cumpleaños
birthday cake	una torta de cumpleaños
birthday card	una tarjeta de cumpleaños
birthday party	una fiesta de cumpleaños
birthday present	un regalo de cumpleaños
Happy birthday!	¡Feliz cumpleaños!

In Hispanic countries, a girl’s 15th birthday—la quinceañera—is the most special. The closest equivalent in the United States is the now old-fashioned coming-out party. In Mexico and other Hispanic countries, 15 is seen as the age when a girl turns into a woman, and this is commemorated with a huge party, with many similarities to a wedding in the United States, with a church ceremony, a fancy white or light pink dress and matching bouquet, a “court” with damas (maids of honor) and chambelanes (gentlemen), party favors, and a banquet. I bet you don’t know that the party itself has a name and it is called el quinceañero. The girl turning 15 is called la quinceañera.

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

In the United States, a girl’s “sweet 16th” birthday is considered the most special. But even the fanciest sweet 16 party is nowhere near as elaborate as el quinceañero.

Nice Party

Find your way from el principio (the start) to el fin (the end). Circle the number of regalos de cumpleaños you travel through.

UNO
DOS
TRES

To ask how old someone is, say ¿Cuántos años tienes?

And then to answer, you need to use tengo, from the verb tener (which normally means “to have”) plus the number and then the word años (years).

English	Spanish
I'm six years old.	Tengo seis años.
I'm ten years old.	Tengo diez años.

Have a short conversation with a friend about ages. Here’s a sample conversation:

ANA: Hola, Carlos.

CARLOS: Buenos días.

ANA: ¿Cuántos años tienes?

CARLOS: Tengo nueve años.

ANA: ¡Yo también!

CARLOS: ¡Qué interesante!

ANA: ¡Hasta Luego!

CARLOS: ¡Adios, Ana!

Now write your own conversation in the blank spaces provided and practice it with a friend:

SPEAKER 1: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 2: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 1: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 2: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 1: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 2: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 1: ______________________________________________

SPEAKER 2: ______________________________________________

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

To say that you are older than someone, use mayor: Soy mayor que mi hermano (I’m older than my brother). To say that you are younger, use menor: Soy menor que mi prima (I’m younger than my cousin).

Birthdays are great! Everyone has one, and it’s a great opportunity to throw a party, eat cake, and open presents! You probably know exactly when your own birthday is, but do you know the birthdays of your friends and family members? Fill in the blanks below to help yourself remember these important days. Here’s the trick: The months are in Spanish!

Month in Spanish	Friend or Family Member	Birth Date
enero	____________________________
febrero	____________________________
marzo	____________________________
abril	____________________________
mayo	____________________________
junio	____________________________
julio	____________________________
agosto	____________________________
septiembre	____________________________
octubre	____________________________
noviembre	____________________________
diciembre	____________________________

For extra fun, write a short sentence about your own birthday! Find a calendar of the current year and look up what day of the week your birthday falls on. Check out the example below, and then write your own birthday sentence.

My birthday is Tuesday, April 23.

Mi cumpleaños es el martes, el 23 de abril.

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