About the Telling Time Practice
This telling time practice tool gives children an interactive analog clock to learn with. In “Read the clock” mode a time appears on the clock face and you choose the matching digital time; in “Set the clock” mode you move the hour and minute hands to match a time in words. Levels build up the way most schools teach it: o’clock, half past, quarter past and quarter to, five-minute steps and finally any minute.
The converter below the game turns any time into words (“twenty to ten”), 12-hour and 24-hour digital forms, minutes past and minutes to the hour, and the exact angle of each hand. Parents and teachers can use it to check worksheets or explain why the hour hand sits between two numbers at half past.
Times in words follow the common British and American spoken style: minutes past the hour up to half past, then minutes to the next hour. Multiples of five drop the word “minutes” (“ten past four”), as people usually say them.
How to use the telling time practice
- 1Pick a level, starting with o’clock and half past.
- 2In “Read the clock”, look at the short hour hand first, then the long minute hand, and choose the matching time.
- 3In “Set the clock”, move the minute hand first, then the hour hand, and press Check.
- 4Move up a level once you get five in a row right.
- 5Type any time into the converter to see it in words and as hand angles.
Formula and method
The minute hand travels 360° in 60 minutes, so it moves 6° per minute. The hour hand travels 360° in 12 hours: 30° per hour plus 0.5° for every minute past the hour, which is why at half past three it sits halfway between the 3 and the 4. The angle between the hands is the smaller of the two ways round the clock.
In words, minutes 1–30 are said as “past” the current hour and minutes 31–59 as “to” the next hour, with quarter past, half past and quarter to used for 15, 30 and 45 minutes.
- h
- Hour (0–23)
- m
- Minutes past the hour (0–59)
- H, M
- Hour-hand and minute-hand angles measured clockwise from 12
Worked examples
Quarter past three in the afternoon
The minute hand points at the 3 (15 × 6° = 90°). The hour hand has moved a quarter of the way from 3 to 4: 3 × 30° + 15 × 0.5° = 97.5°, so the hands are only 7.5° apart.
Twenty to ten
At 9:40 the minute hand is on the 8 (240°) and the hour hand is two-thirds of the way from 9 to 10 (270° + 20° = 290°). With 20 minutes left in the hour we say “twenty to ten”.
Seven minutes past midnight
Hour 0 is shown as 12 on an analog clock. Seven minutes is not a multiple of five, so the word “minutes” is kept: “seven minutes past twelve”. The hands are 42° − 3.5° = 38.5° apart.
Quarter to one at night
The minute hand is on the 9 (270°) and the hour hand is three-quarters of the way from 12 to 1 (22.5°). Going the short way round, the hands are 360° − 247.5° = 112.5° apart.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to teach a child to tell time?+
Teach the hour hand first with o’clock times, then half past, then quarter past and quarter to. Next count the minute hand in fives around the clock, and only then move to exact minutes. Short daily practice with a real or on-screen clock works best.
Which hand is the hour hand?+
The hour hand is the short, thick hand; it points to the hour and moves slowly between the numbers. The minute hand is the long hand; each number it points to stands for 5 minutes (the 1 is 5, the 2 is 10, and so on).
What does quarter past and quarter to mean?+
An hour has four quarters of 15 minutes. Quarter past means 15 minutes after the hour (3:15 is quarter past three), half past is 30 minutes after, and quarter to means 15 minutes before the next hour (3:45 is quarter to four).
At what age do children learn to tell time?+
Under the US Common Core, first graders tell time to the hour and half hour, second graders to the nearest five minutes and third graders to the nearest minute. England’s national curriculum covers o’clock and half past in Year 1, five minutes in Year 2 and the nearest minute in Year 3.
Why is the hour hand between two numbers?+
The hour hand moves gradually, 0.5° every minute, rather than jumping each hour. At 3:30 it is exactly halfway between 3 and 4, and at 3:45 it is three-quarters of the way to 4 — a useful clue that the time is nearly four o’clock.
How do I convert 24-hour time to 12-hour time?+
For hours 13–23 subtract 12 and add PM (15:15 becomes 3:15 PM). Hour 12 is 12 PM (noon), hour 0 is 12 AM (midnight), and hours 1–11 stay the same with AM.