Telling time is important in any language, including Arabic language. We at Kaleela believe that you, as a student, should cover the essentials, whether you want to make plans, schedule an appointment or simply know what time of the day it is.
Therefore, in this topic, we explained how you can read the clock, ask questions and understand any answer you might receive.
Of course, you will have to go through the “Numbers in Arabic” topic before you move on to “Telling time” so you can read and listen with ease.
Although it might be considered tricky at first, once you get the hang of it you will be able to tell time like a pro.
The time can be described as in general or specific terms. General terms would be SabaaHan ( صَباحاً ) for daytime or masaaʼan ( مَساءً ) for evening time. However, when you want to be more specific, you have to keep in mind that constructions using the word “o’clock” (assaaʻah / السَّاعَة in Arabic) will be paired with the feminine version of the ordinal numbers (like “the third”, “the fifth” and so on). Thus, when saying “It is 4 o'clock”, in Modern Standard Arabic it would be السَّاعَة الرَّابِعَة - assaaʻah al raabiʻ.
If you want to be more specific by saying “It is 4 and a half” you would simply add niSf / نِصْف (which means “half”) and the conjunction وَ / wa (which means “and”). The construction would be like السَّاعَة الرَّابِعَة وَ النِّصْف - assaaʻah al raabiʻ wa niSf. You can follow the same pattern with “quarter” ( rubʻ - رُبْع ).
In conclusion, telling time in Arabic takes a bit of time to nail it, but practice makes perfect!
أَوَّل
/ʼawwal/
Means
First
ثاني
/thaanee/
Means
Second
ثالِث
/thaalith/
Means
Third
رابِـع
/raabiʻ/
Means
Fourth
خامِس
/khaamis/
Means
Fifth
صَباحاً
/SabaaHan/
Means
AM
مَساءً
/masaaʼan/
Means
PM
كَمْ السَّاعَة؟
/kam assaaʻah/
Means
What is the time?
نِصْف
/niSf/
Means
Half
رُبْع
/rubʻ/
Means
Quarter
دَقيقَة
/daqeeqah/
Means
Minute
دَقائِق
/daqaaʼiq/
Means
Minutes
"وَ "
means
"And"
When telling time "وَ "
will turn the meaning into "Past"
As in (السَّاعَة الرَّابِعَة وَ النِّصْف)
Half past four
For more info regarding telling time in Arabic and how to learn Arabic online,
you can download the Arabic learning app Kaleela application to learn Arabic the right way.