Counting from cero to mil, telling the hour, naming the day and the month, giving your age, and saying what the weather is doing. Twenty-four study cards, a page of hints, a three-tier quiz and four workshop labs.
A clock at 2:15. In English you say the two numbers — two fifteen. Spanish does not.
Spanish names the hour first, and the verb agrees with that hour. One hour takes es la una. Two or more take son las dos, son las tres. The minutes come last.
Four things people get wrong
⚠️People often think…
2:15 in Spanish is son las dos quince.
English reads a clock as two numbers: two, fifteen. Spanish says the hour, then y, then the minutes: son las dos y cuarto. 2:10 is son las dos y diez. 2:30 is son las dos y media. You will see las dos quince on a train timetable or a screen at the airport — but not when a person asks you the time.
The hour, then y, then the minutes.
⚠️People often think…
Son las tres menos cuarto is 3:45.
It is 2:45. Past the half hour, Spanish jumps to the next hour and counts back. Three o’clock minus a quarter is 2:45. Son las siete menos diez is 6:50.
With menos, the hour you name has not struck yet.
⚠️People often think…
Class starts at eight, so you say son las ocho.
Son las ocho answers ¿Qué hora es? — what the clock says right now. When something happens answers ¿A qué hora?, and that answer starts with a: a las ocho, a la una.
Son las is the clock. A las is the plan.
⚠️People often think…
A letter from Madrid dated 5/8 was written on May 8.
It was written on the fifth of August — el 5 de agosto. In Spanish the day is written first and the month second. Every Spanish-speaking country writes it that way.
In Spanish the day comes first.
Read the clock the Spanish way
1Watch one
It is 3:30. Say it in Spanish.
The hour that struck is three.
Three is more than one, so son las.
Thirty minutes is half. Add y.
Son las tres y media. ✓
2Do one with me
It is 1:15. Build the sentence, one part at a time.
The verb for one hour is
The hour you name is
After y, the minutes are
💬One sentence, then you move on
Why is it es la una but son las dos?
3Try one
Write 7:45 in Spanish. Either form counts.
I want a hint first
Past the half hour, name the next hour and take the minutes off it with menos. 7:45 is eight minus a quarter.
💬Last one — then you’re done here
Why does the hour you name change halfway through the hour?
Where this goes
Where this lives
A bus timetable in Madrid, a class schedule on a wall, a birthday written 5/8 that means the fifth of August.
What this feeds
Next unit is The Classroom — nouns and articles. The la and las in es la una and son las dos are the same two articles that sit in front of every noun.
One card at a time — tap “Show me” to check yourself, then Next. Start at Foundation; when those feel easy, climb.
Helpful Hints
🧭 The unit in one line
Count to a hundred → glue 16–29 into one word → add y from 31 up → ask a price with ¿cuánto cuesta? → tell the hour with ser → add y for the first half hour and menos for the second → name the day and the month in small letters → write the day before the month → give your age with tener → say the weather with hace.
Hour = ser. Age = tener. Weather = hacer.
🔑 The one idea
The numbers are the easy part. Three different verbs carry them, and the question tells you which one to use. ¿Qué hora es? takes ser. ¿Cuántos años tienes? takes tener. ¿Qué tiempo hace? takes hacer.
⚠️ Traps to avoid
Es la una is the only singular hour. Every other hour is son las.
Menos names the hour ahead, not the hour behind. Son las tres menos cuarto is 2:45, not 3:45.
Days and months take small letters: lunes, enero. A capital L or E is the most common slip in this unit.
On a Spanish calendar the week starts on lunes, not on domingo.
Age uses tener, not ser. Tengo trece años — never soy trece años.
In a date written with numbers, the day comes first: 5/8 is el 5 de agosto.
16 to 29 are one word with no y. From 31 on, three words with y in the middle.
📐 Reading a date — the chart
Said in Spanish
Spanish numbers
United States numbers
The day it is
el 5 de agosto
5/8
8/5
5 August
el 8 de mayo
8/5
5/8
8 May
el 12 de octubre
12/10
10/12
12 October
el 25 de diciembre
25/12
12/25
25 December
el 1 de enero
1/1
1/1
1 January — the same either way
🎯 How you will be asked
A clock is shown — “¿Qué hora es?”
“Write 2:45 in Spanish.” The menos half of the hour is the test.
“A letter from Spain says 5/8. Which day is that, and how do you know?”
“Tengo or soy — which verb goes with años, and why?”
“Look at the temperature chart. Why is January hot in Buenos Aires?”
✅ Before the test, can you…
Count from 0 to 100 without stumbling at 16 or at 31?
Say any time on the clock, including the menos half of the hour?
Name the seven days in order, starting with lunes?
Name all twelve months, written in small letters?
Write today’s date the Spanish way, in words and in numbers?
Answer the three questions — hora, años, tiempo — with the right verb each time?
📚 Go to the sources
These open another website and need the internet. Look a word up, read a real clock, read a real forecast, and find a country on the globe.
Look back at anything you missed — the hint that appeared is exactly what to reread tonight.
How sure did you feel?
Workshop
Work like a translator: put nine Spanish times in order, sort sentences by the verb they use, build a graph of January temperatures, then explain why one written date can mean two days.
Your practice never leaves this device. There is no account and no sign-in. Your work is saved in this browser only, and you can erase it whenever you want.
Your practice record — saved on this device
This is your record of the module on screen — it stays here and goes nowhere. Independent means you got it right on the first tap; supported means you got it after the explain-and-retry, or marked ‘I had it’ on a revealed answer. Both count, and neither is a grade. If your teacher asks, copy the row or show them this screen.
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The answer key is for a teacher: it prints only from here, for the unit on screen. Print the study packet prints the study pages and a blank quiz — never the answers.