Tell Time at Quarter To the Hour

Soccer practice ends at quarter to five. Let's learn what that looks like on a clock!

Here's our clock with the hour hand pointing near five and the minute hand on the nine.

The long hand is the minute hand. It's pointing right at the nine.

Each number on the clock is five minutes. Let's count from the twelve: five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five.

So the minute hand on the nine means forty-five minutes.

The short hand is the hour hand. It's almost on the five, but not quite there yet.

Since it hasn't reached five, the hour is still four.

We write the time as four forty-five.

Forty-five minutes is three quarters of the way around. There's only one quarter left to reach five.

That's why we call this 'quarter to five' — a quarter hour away from five o'clock.

Four forty-five is quarter to five. Time to head home from practice!

Now you try. Look at the hands. Type the time this clock shows. Type the time.