Have you ever looked at an Italian train ticket and wondered why the departure time says 18:35 instead of 6:35 p.m.? Have you heard someone say “Sono le otto meno un quarto” and needed a few seconds to understand what time they meant? Or perhaps you already know Italian numbers but still find it difficult to answer the simple question “Che ore sono?”
If you live, study, work or travel in Italy, learning how to tell time in Italian is one of those practical skills you will use almost every day. You need it when arranging an appointment, catching a train, booking a table, asking when a shop closes or simply meeting an Italian friend for coffee.
Fortunately, telling time in Italian is quite logical once you understand a few basic rules. In this guide, we will learn how Italians ask and tell the time, how expressions such as e un quarto, e mezza and meno un quarto work, and why the 24-hour clock in Italy is particularly important.
Table of Contents
- How to Ask the Time in Italian
- How to Say the Time in Italian
- How to Add Minutes in Italian
- How to Say “Quarter Past” in Italian
- How to Say “Half Past” in Italian
- How “Meno” Works When Telling Time
- How to Say “Quarter to” in Italian
- How to Say Noon and Midnight in Italian
- The 24-Hour Clock in Italy
- How Italians Read the 24-Hour Clock
- “È” or “Sono”? An Important Italian Rule
- How to Say “At” a Particular Time
- A Real-Life Example: Taking a Train in Italy
- Common Mistakes Foreigners Make
- A Simple Way to Practise Italian Time
- The Essential Rule to Remember
How to Ask the Time in Italian
The most common question you need to remember is:
Che ore sono?
It means “What time is it?”
You may also hear:
Che ora è?
Both expressions are used and understood in Italy.
If you want to ask at what time something happens, however, you normally use A che ora…?
For example:
A che ora parte il treno?
What time does the train leave?
A che ora inizia la lezione?
What time does the lesson start?
A che ora chiude il supermercato?
What time does the supermarket close?
This distinction is extremely useful. Che ore sono? asks for the current time, while A che ora…? asks when a particular event takes place.
How to Say the Time in Italian
There is one basic expression that will help you tell almost any time:
Sono le + hour
For example:
Sono le due.
It is two o’clock.
Sono le cinque.
It is five o’clock.
Sono le nove.
It is nine o’clock.
Notice the plural form sono le. This is because Italian essentially treats the expression as “they are the nine hours”.
There is, however, an important exception.
For one o’clock, Italians say:
È l’una.
Not “sono le una”.
This happens because una is singular.
Therefore:
1:00 → È l’una.
2:00 → Sono le due.
3:00 → Sono le tre.
This small difference is worth learning immediately because it is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners.
How to Add Minutes in Italian
Adding minutes is straightforward. Italians normally use e, meaning “and”, between the hour and the minutes.
For example:
8:05 → Sono le otto e cinque.
8:10 → Sono le otto e dieci.
8:20 → Sono le otto e venti.
9:25 → Sono le nove e venticinque.
If you already know Italian numbers, you can therefore start telling the time quite quickly.
Imagine that someone asks:
Che ore sono?
You look at your phone and see 10:20.
You can answer:
Sono le dieci e venti.
The structure is very close to the way the time appears on the screen, which makes this one of the easiest parts of learning to tell time in Italian.
How to Say “Quarter Past” in Italian
When fifteen minutes have passed, Italians commonly use the expression:
e un quarto
The word quarto means “quarter”.
For example:
8:15 → Sono le otto e un quarto.
3:15 → Sono le tre e un quarto.
11:15 → Sono le undici e un quarto.
You can think of the clock as being divided into four equal sections. Fifteen minutes represent one quarter of an hour, which explains the expression un quarto.
You may also hear the numerical version:
Sono le otto e quindici.
Both forms are easy to understand, but e un quarto is very common in everyday conversation.
How to Say “Half Past” in Italian
Thirty minutes after the hour can be expressed with:
e mezza
For example:
8:30 → Sono le otto e mezza.
4:30 → Sono le quattro e mezza.
10:30 → Sono le dieci e mezza.
You may wonder why Italians say mezza rather than mezzo. The expression refers to mezz’ora, meaning “half an hour”, and ora is feminine.
You can also say:
Sono le otto e trenta.
However, in normal conversation Sono le otto e mezza sounds completely natural and is an expression you are likely to hear frequently in Italy.
How “Meno” Works When Telling Time
This is where things become slightly more interesting.
Instead of saying 8:50 as “eight and fifty”, Italians can look ahead to the next hour and say that ten minutes are missing.
The key word is meno, which means “minus” or, in this context, “to”.
For example:
8:50 → Sono le nove meno dieci.
Literally, you can think of it as “It is nine minus ten”.
Similarly:
7:40 → Sono le otto meno venti.
9:55 → Sono le dieci meno cinque.
This system may initially require a little mental calculation. The important point is that after meno, you are working backwards from the next hour.
If you see 8:50, think:
The next hour is 9:00.
Ten minutes are missing.
Therefore: Sono le nove meno dieci.
Once you understand this mechanism, expressions with meno become much easier.
How to Say “Quarter to” in Italian
The expression for “quarter to” is:
meno un quarto
For example:
8:45 → Sono le nove meno un quarto.
5:45 → Sono le sei meno un quarto.
11:45 → Sono le dodici meno un quarto.
Compare these two expressions carefully:
8:15 → Sono le otto e un quarto.
8:45 → Sono le nove meno un quarto.
In the first example, fifteen minutes have passed since eight o’clock. In the second, fifteen minutes remain before nine o’clock.
This is one of the most useful comparisons to practise when you are learning Italian time expressions.
How to Say Noon and Midnight in Italian
Two important words are:
mezzogiorno = noon
mezzanotte = midnight
For example:
Ci vediamo a mezzogiorno.
We’ll meet at noon.
Il locale chiude a mezzanotte.
The venue closes at midnight.
If someone asks you the time at exactly noon, you can say:
È mezzogiorno.
At midnight:
È mezzanotte.
These expressions are extremely common, so it is worth learning them as complete phrases rather than trying to translate them word by word.
The 24-Hour Clock in Italy
If you are a foreigner living or travelling in Italy, this is particularly important.
The 24-hour clock is widely used in Italy, especially in written schedules and more formal contexts.
You are very likely to see it on train and bus timetables, plane tickets, booking confirmations, office opening hours, medical appointments and other official information.
For example:
14:30 = 2:30 p.m.
18:45 = 6:45 p.m.
21:00 = 9:00 p.m.
23:15 = 11:15 p.m.
Imagine that your Italian train ticket says:
Partenza: 18:35
This means that your train leaves at 6:35 in the evening, not at 8:35.
Understanding the 24-hour clock in Italy is therefore more than a language exercise. It is a practical skill that can prevent missed trains, late appointments and other misunderstandings.
How Italians Read the 24-Hour Clock
In everyday conversation, Italians often use the 12-hour system when the context makes the part of the day obvious.
For example, two friends arranging dinner might say:
Ci vediamo alle otto.
“We’ll meet at eight.”
They normally do not need to specify that they mean 8 p.m. because dinner provides the context.
When greater precision is necessary, expressions such as these can be added:
di mattina = in the morning
del pomeriggio = in the afternoon
di sera = in the evening
di notte = at night
For example:
Sono le otto di mattina.
It is eight in the morning.
Ci vediamo alle otto di sera.
We’ll meet at eight in the evening.
In more formal situations or when reading an official timetable, however, you should be comfortable with times such as 14:00, 16:30, 19:45 and 22:10.
“È” or “Sono”? An Important Italian Rule
One of the easiest mistakes for foreign learners to make concerns è and sono.
Remember:
È l’una.
It is one o’clock.
But:
Sono le due.
It is two o’clock.
Sono le cinque.
It is five o’clock.
Sono le undici.
It is eleven o’clock.
The same distinction remains when you add minutes:
È l’una e dieci.
It is 1:10.
Sono le due e dieci.
It is 2:10.
The reason is grammatical: l’una is singular, while the other hours are plural.
Rather than memorising the grammar in isolation, practise the two structures together:
È l’una. Sono le due.
After repeating them a few times, the difference begins to sound natural.
How to Say “At” a Particular Time
Knowing how to tell the time is only part of the job. You also need to know how to say that something happens at a particular time.
Italian normally uses alle:
La lezione inizia alle nove.
The lesson starts at nine.
Il treno parte alle sette e venti.
The train leaves at 7:20.
Ci vediamo alle otto e mezza.
We’ll meet at 8:30.
Once again, one o’clock is the exception:
Ci vediamo all’una.
We’ll meet at one.
So remember this useful pair:
all’una = at one
alle due / alle tre / alle quattro… = at two / three / four…
This is particularly useful when making appointments in Italy.
A Real-Life Example: Taking a Train in Italy
Imagine that you are staying in Rome and need to take a train to Florence.
Your ticket says:
Partenza: 17:40
You know that this means 5:40 p.m.
At the hotel you ask:
A che ora devo andare alla stazione?
What time should I go to the station?
Someone might answer:
Verso le cinque.
Around five.
Later, a friend asks:
A che ora parte il treno?
You can answer:
Alle cinque e quaranta.
In everyday speech, the person may use the 12-hour form because everyone already knows that the journey takes place in the afternoon.
This example shows why learning the time is not simply about memorising vocabulary. You need to recognise the formal written time and understand how Italians may express the same time naturally in conversation.
Common Mistakes Foreigners Make
A common mistake is forgetting that one o’clock is singular. Remember that Italians say È l’una, not Sono le una.
Another problem is confusing e with meno.
Consider:
Sono le otto e un quarto = 8:15
but:
Sono le otto meno un quarto = 7:45
That single word completely changes the time.
Foreign learners should also become comfortable with the 24-hour system. If an appointment is scheduled for 16:30, it means 4:30 p.m. You should not expect Italian schedules always to use a.m. and p.m.
Finally, remember the difference between asking for the current time and asking when something happens:
Che ore sono? = What time is it?
A che ora parte? = What time does it leave?
These small distinctions make your Italian much more useful in real situations.
A Simple Way to Practise Italian Time
You do not need a complicated exercise book to start practising.
During the day, look at your phone or watch and try to say the time aloud in Italian.
If it is 8:15, say:
Sono le otto e un quarto.
At 10:30:
Sono le dieci e mezza.
At 6:45:
Sono le sette meno un quarto.
You can make the exercise even more useful by creating a sentence about your daily routine:
Faccio colazione alle sette e mezza.
I have breakfast at 7:30.
Inizio a lavorare alle nove.
I start work at nine.
Ceno alle otto di sera.
I have dinner at eight in the evening.
In this way, you are not simply memorising how to tell time in Italian. You are connecting the language to your everyday life.
The Essential Rule to Remember
If you are just beginning, start with the simplest structure:
Sono le + hour + e + minutes.
Then learn the expressions e un quarto and e mezza.
After that, practise meno by looking towards the next hour.
For example:
8:15 → Sono le otto e un quarto.
8:30 → Sono le otto e mezza.
8:45 → Sono le nove meno un quarto.
And never forget the special case:
1:00 → È l’una.
With regular practice, these expressions will stop feeling like mathematical formulas and will become part of the Italian you use naturally.
What do you find most difficult about telling time in Italian: è l’una, expressions with meno, or the Italian 24-hour clock? Tell us in the comments.
Practical tip: for the next seven days, whenever you check your phone for the time, try saying it aloud in Italian before doing anything else. It takes only a few seconds, but repeating the exercise several times a day can make the basic structures much easier to remember.
This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)