Saying the time and the date — six minutes past five
Telling the time to the exact minute, plus days, months, dates and years — how to SAY them.
Unit 5 taught you WHICH word to use: at 6:30, on Monday, in July, in 2025. This unit teaches you how to SAY them out loud. Examples use the daily routine words from Unit 5.
A — Asking for the time
The answer always starts with It's.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What time is it? | It's half past seven. |
| What's the time? | It's ten o'clock. |
| Have you got the time? (polite) | It's six minutes past five. |
The rest of this lesson is in the General English course:
- B — The four easy shapes
- The big rule: past and to
- C — Any minute: do we say the word *minutes*?
- Shortcut if you are unsure
- Correct vs wrong — the time
- D — Parts of the day
- Putting the clock time and the part of the day together
- E — Days of the week
- F — Months of the year
- Ordinal numbers — for dates you need these
- G — Saying the date
- H — Saying years
- Remember
Try it: past or to?
Choose the correct word.
- 4:20 — It's twenty ___ four.
(a) past (b) to (c) at - 4:50 — It's ten ___ five.
(a) past (b) to (c) in - 9:30 — It's half ___ nine.
(a) to (b) past (c) on - 11:45 — It's quarter ___ twelve.
(a) past (b) to (c) before - 5:53 — It's seven minutes ___ six.
(a) past (b) to (c) until
Check your answers in the course — it marks them instantly. This is one of the unit's 7 exercises; the other 6 are in the General English course too.
Practise this unit in the course →