Answer – ‘¿Qué hora es’ is the Spanish phrase for “What is the time’.
Explanation:
When learning a new language, knowing how to tell the time and how to ask for it is among the basics. Very often, a literal translation of the question “What is the time?” into the new language does not work. This is also the case in Spanish.
The Spanish word for ‘time’ is tiempo. However, in the question for “What is the time?”, tiempo is not used. Instead the word hora meaning ‘hour’ is used. In Spanish the commonly used question would be ¿Qué hora es?. Here,
- Qué – What
- hora – hour
- es – is it
¿Qué hora es? treats the hour as a singular one even though the question may be asked at a time when the answer is likely to not be 1 o’clock. It is the most polite form of the question and is generally used in the majority of Spanish-speaking countries.
In some countries, ¿Qué horas son? may be the common usage. However, in most others this is regarded as a very informal form of the question. Other informal versions of the question include ¿Qué tiempo? and ¿Qué hora tienes?
