Friday, October 10, 2014

Che ora e'?

















Oggi abbiamo imparato a dire l'ora in italiano (Today we learned how to tell time in Italian).

We took notes, practiced, then had a lively competition!

Here are some additional notes, if what I gave you today wasn't helpful, or you didn't get it all down:

You've got to know the time if you want to see those Botticelli paintings at the Uffizi in Florence. Luckily, there are two ways to ask "What time is it?" in Italian: Che ora è? and Che ore sono? If the time is one o'clock, noon, or midnight, the answer is in the singular; for all other hours, it is plural. Note that the phrase "o'clock" has no direct equivalent in Italian.
Che ora è? (What time is it?)
Che ore sono? (What time is it?)
È l'una. (It's one o'clock.)
È mezzogiorno. (It's noon.)
È mezzanotte. (It's midnight.)
Sono le tre e quindici. (It's 3:15.)
È mezzo giorno e dieci. (It's 12:10.)


COMMON TERMS RELATED TO TELLING TIME
morningdi mattino
noonmezzogiorno
afternoondel pomeriggio
eveningdi sera
midnightmezzanotte
a quarterun quarto
a quarter after/paste un quarto
half paste mezzo
a quarter to/beforemeno un quarto
sharpin punto
Store hours, TV timetables, performance listings, and other time references are written differently in Italy. When telling time, commas replace colons. For example, 2:00 becomes 2,00; 2:30 becomes 2,30; 2:50 becomes 2,50.
The following table shows how you would tell the time from 5:00 to 6:00. 

TELLING TIME 5:00-6:00
5,00Sono le cinque.
5,10Sono le cinque e dieci.
5,15Sono le cinque e un quarto.
5,20Sono le cinque e venti.
5,30Sono le cinque e mezzo.
5,40Sono le sei meno venti.
5,45Sono le sei meno un quarto.
5,50Sono le sei meno dieci.
6,00Sono le sei.
As in most of Europe, Italy uses the so-called "official time" (equivalent to "military time" in the United States) in train schedules, performances, movie timetables, radio, TV, and office hours. Between friends and in other informal situations, Italians may use the numbers from 1 to 12 to indicate time, and the context of the conversation will usually be sufficient. After all, La Scala doesn't have performances at eight in the morning!

del mattino = in the morning
del pomeriggio = in the afternoon
di sera = in the evening
di notte- at night

If you want some more practice, here's a video that explains it in detail!
Time Video

Your homework: Write 10 time sentences in Italian.  A classmate will take your quiz, trying to guess what times your wrote!

To prove that you visited the blog,  leave a comment and give me the current time in Italian!


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