What Time Is It

What you will learn

You can ask and tell the time, and say when something starts and ends.

Asking the time

Klocka means clock or watch, and klockan means the clock. In times, klockan works like o’clock. You may also hear Hur mycket är klockan? It asks the same thing. This course uses Vad är klockan?

Whole hours

In everyday speech, Swedish uses the numbers from 1 to 12 for the hours.

For one o’clock, say ett, the same word you use when you count.

Past and to

Över means past, so the minutes come after the hour. I means to, so the minutes come before the hour. En kvart is a quarter of an hour.

Halv points to the next hour

Halv åtta means half an hour before eight, so 7.30. In British English, half eight means 8.30, so take care. In Swedish, halv always points to the next hour.

At a time

To say when something happens, put klockan before the time.

With a whole hour, use klockan, as in klockan sju. With halv, kvart, fem and tio, you can say klockan or leave it out. Hon går upp kvart över sex and Hon går upp klockan kvart över sex mean the same.

From and to

Från and till together give the start and the end of a time. Here till means to or until.

More examples

Around the half hour

The half-hour point is still halv åtta, or 7.30. Count five minutes backwards for 7.25 and five forwards for 7.35. You may also hear tjugofem över sju for 7.25 and tjugofem i åtta for 7.35. These describe the same times.

Timetables and the whole day

Written schedules often use a 24 hour clock. A time such as 18.30 is six thirty in the evening. You can read it directly as arton trettio, or say halv sju på kvällen in a conversation. Choose the form that makes the situation clear.

An exercise asking for a digital reading accepts the digital words. An exercise asking for a clock expression may use halv, kvart, över or i. There is no need to pretend that only one way of saying a time is correct.

Common mistakes