A clock has two hands. The short hand shows the hour and the long hand shows the minutes. Read the short hand first: the hour is the number it points to, or the number it has just passed. Then read the long hand. Each number on the clock stands for 5 minutes, so count in fives from the 12: 1 is 5 minutes, 3 is 15, 6 is 30. Half past means 30 minutes, quarter past means 15, and quarter to means 45 minutes past, 15 minutes before the next hour. For exact minutes, count the small marks after the last number: each one is 1 minute.
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Move the hands
3:00
The short hand moves between hour numbers as the minutes pass. One full turn of the long hand is sixty minutes.
Words to know
- hour hand
- the short hand; it shows the hour
- minute hand
- the long hand; it shows the minutes past the hour
- quarter to
- 15 minutes before the next hour, or 45 minutes past
Worked examples
The short hand is half way between 3 and 4. The long hand points to 6.
- 1.The short hand has passed 3 but not reached 4, so the hour is 3.
- 2.The long hand on 6 is 6 × 5 = 30 minutes: half past.
= 3:30
The short hand is nearly at 8. The long hand points to 9.
- 1.The short hand has not reached 8, so the hour is still 7.
- 2.The long hand on 9 is 45 minutes: quarter to 8.
= 7:45
The short hand is just past 2. The long hand is 3 small marks past the 4.
- 1.The hour is 2.
- 2.Count in fives to the 4: 20 minutes. Then 3 small marks: 21, 22, 23.
= 2:23
For parents
Method: Hour hand first, then count the minutes
What to say: Which hand is the short one? Which number has it just passed? Now count the minutes in fives.
Common mistakes:
- Mixes up the hands: reads the long hand as the hour and the short hand as the minutes.
- Reads only the long hand and says that number o'clock.
- Reads the number the minute hand points to as the minutes (6 means 6 minutes), instead of counting in fives.
- Reads the hour from the number the hour hand is nearest, even when it has not reached it yet.
- Mixes up 'past' and 'to', so reads the minutes as counted from the wrong side of the 12.
- Reads the minutes only to the last number the minute hand has passed, ignoring the extra small marks.
- Counts the mark on the number itself as the first minute, so the minutes come out one too many.