Transcript Lesson Six
Hi! Welcome back to English From the Beginning!
This is Lesson Six.
In Lesson Four, we looked at numbers.
In Lesson Five, we looked at ordinal numbers, like first second and third.
In Lesson Six, we are looking at numbers, because I can tell the time.
So let’s have a look at the hours on the clock…
Telling the Time – the hours
One o’clock
Two o’clock
Three o’clock
Four o’clock
Five o’clock
Six o’clock
Seven o’clock
Eight o’clock
Nine o’clock
Ten o’clock
Eleven o’clock
Twelve o’clock
We just put the number and then o’clock.)
If somebody asks the question:
What time is it?
We say: It is one o’clock.
(‘It is’ – and then the time.)
Telling the Time – past & to
It is five past one.
It is ten past one.
It is quarter past one.
(We do not say: It is fifteen past one. We say: It is quarter past one.)
It is twenty past one.
It is twenty-five past one.
It is half past one.
(We do not say: It is thirty past one. We say: It is half past one.)
It is twenty-five to one.
It is twenty to one.
It is quarter to two – not fifteen to two… It is quarter to two.
It is ten to two.
It is five to two.
It is two o’clock.
(We only say o’clock when we have the full hour.)
So, one o’clock.
Two o’clock
– but five past one, ten past two, etc.
So, between the HOUR – the O’CLOCK and HALF, we say ‘past’
and between HALF and the HOUR, we say ‘to’.
Pronunciation
When we see this word here… ‘half’, we see the L and we think … but it is half.
This word is quarter, like water…
K-water
Quarter…
It is quarter past one.
Q U is …
Quarter
Question
There are 60 minutes in one hour.
This word is ‘minutes’, not …
minutes (like minnits).
This word is ‘hour’,
Not H-our…hour.
We pronounce ‘hour like” ‘our dad’ or ‘our children’, but we spell it with an H…
One hour.
Our dad
Our children.
60 seconds is one minute.
Here we say minute. (like minnit)
We can also say minute (like my-nute), but ‘minute’ means ‘small’.
So, we can say: He is one minute boy. (He is one small boy.)
‘Minute’ (Iike my-nute) means ‘small’.
60 seconds is one minute.
English is tricky, but I am here to make it simple for you.
What time is it? (Examples)
What time is it?
It is ten past four.
It is twenty-five past six.
It is quarter to seven.
It is half past eleven.
It is ten to three.
It is quarter to two.
It is quarter past five.
It is ten past eight.
It is half past nine.
It is twenty to one.
It is twenty-five to twelve.
It is ten to nine.
It is twenty-five past three.
Of course we can also say: it is 10:10, or it is 11:25, or it is 12:15.)
Then we do say 15; we do not say 12 : quarter.
I sometimes say: Let’s have lunch at 1:30,
or I can say: Let’s have lunch at half past one.
In a train station, you might hear:
The 15:30 train to Manchester Piccadilly is late.
With transport, we use the digital clock more often than the analogue clock.
a.m. and p.m.
In English we use a.m. and p.m.
a.m. means ‘ante meridian’.
This is Latin and it means ‘before midday’.
So, from midnight – when I am asleep – to midday – which is lunchtime – is a.m., and from lunchtime until midnight – when I am asleep – is p.m.
We say a.m. and p.m. after the time.
So, if I say 1 a.m., then I am asleep, and if I say 1 p.m., I am having my lunch.
With a.m. and p.m., we do not say 12 o’clock a.m. and 12 o’clock p.m.
We just say 12 a.m. and 12 p.m.
The System
Right, so now I can say: it is five to one.
But let’s put it into a sentence…
It is five to one.
It is ten to two.
It is quarter to three.
We can have two subjects, because ‘is’ is from the verb ‘to be’, and with the verb to be, we can have two subjects.
Questions
If we want to make a question, then we switch the subject and the verb
– with the verb ‘to be’.
So, it is five to one becomes: Is it five to one?
Is it ten to two?
Is it quarter to three?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then I say: Yes, it is ten to two.
– or, even better: Yes, it is!
We do not need to say: ..ten to two;
we just say: Yes, it is!
Negatives
If the answer is ‘No’, then we say:
No, it is not!
Contractions
And, of course, ‘is’ and ‘not’ together make isn’t.
So, Is it ten to two?
No, it isn’t; it is quarter past two.
Let’s add the Direct Object
If we have ‘your mum’, ‘your mum’ does not change.
So, I can see you mum, or:
Your mum can see me.
‘I’ changes to ‘me’, but ‘your mum’ stays the same.
Only the pronouns change…
‘You’ does not change and ‘it’does not change.
So, we can say: It can see you, and:
You can see it.
‘You’ and ‘it’ do not change – with the subject and the direct object.
So, now let’s add a time…
He can see you at half past three.
You can see him at four o’clock.
I can say: I can see you at six o’clock.
Or I can say: At six o’clock I can see you.
Questions
With a question – with the verb ‘can’
– we just switch around the subject and the verb…
Can he see you at half past three?
Negatives
You cannot see him at four o’clock.
But you can see him at 5 o’clock.
You can’t see him at 4 o’clock, but you can see him at 5 o’clock.
If we have the question: Can you see him at 4 o’clock?
We can say: No, you cannot see him at 4 o’clock.
Or we can just say: No, you cannot!
No you can’t, but you can’t see him at five.
At what time…?
‘At what time can we see them?’ is a beautiful English sentence,
but in English, we say: What time can we see them?
When…?
We can also say: When can we see them?
(But ‘at what time’ is more specific.)
When can we see them?
What time can we see them?
Or – beautiful English… At what time can we see them?
Pronunciation
These two words are quite odd…
We spell ‘what’ W H A T and we spell ‘when W H E N, but
I do not pronounce the H; I say: …(pronuncation)
Some people say: (pronuncation),
but I say ‘what’ and ‘when’ and that is quite normal.
What time can I see you?
When can I see you?
I or Me?
In Lesson One, I said: This is me!
But ‘me’ is a direct object; ‘me’ is not a subject.
Really, it should be: This is I!
But that is not normal.
That is not from the year 2020; that is from the year 1820.
(It is old-fashioned.)
In 2020, in normal English, we say: This is me!
We also say: This is him! This is her! This is us! And This is them!
Revision (Lesson Five)
In Lesson Five, we learnt about dates.
So, now we can say:
We can see you on the 15th of June, at 9 a.m.
and this is proper English!
Remember it is ON a DAY and AT a TIME.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s lesson.
See you next time for Lesson Seven, on days of the week – and