Telling the time
Arabic · Key Stage 2 · The School
Asking the time
كَمِ السّاعة؟ — what is the time, literally 'how much is the hour'. The answer always starts with السّاعة, the hour, followed by an ordinal number: السّاعةُ الثّالِثة — it is three o'clock, literally 'the hour, the third'.
Ordinal, not plain, numbers
الأولى the first. الثّانِية the second. الثّالِثة the third. These are different words from the plain counting numbers you already know — wāḥid, ithnān, thalātha — because telling time uses ordinals throughout, not the counting set.
Halves and quarters
السّاعةُ الثّالِثةُ وَالنِّصْف — half past three, literally 'and the half'. السّاعةُ الرّابِعةُ إِلّا رُبُع — quarter to four, literally 'the fourth hour, minus a quarter'. Notice 'to' the hour works backwards from the next hour, not forwards from the last one.
Morning or evening
صَباحاً marks a morning time, مَساءً an evening one. السّاعةُ السّابِعةُ صَباحاً — seven o'clock in the morning. السّاعةُ السّابِعةُ مَساءً — seven in the evening, a completely different time of day carried by one extra word at the end. Try saying your own bedtime this way, adding either صَباحاً or مَساءً at the end.