Learn Spanish - Telling the Time.

In Spanish we differentiate between singular and plural, considering "one" as singular and the rest of hours of the clock as plural.

To answer to the question 'what time is it?' in English, we always start by saying: "It is..."

It is quarter past one. (Es la una y cuarto)

It is five to six. (Son las seis menos cinco)

Spanish is very similar, most of the times we start by saying  "son las ..."

Son las dos y cuarto. (It is quarter past two)
Son las seis menos cinco. (It is five to six)

We said previously we start most of the times by saying "son las..." because when we are telling the time related to "one" we will start our sentence by saying: "Es la una..."

Es la una en punto. (It is one o'clock)
Es la una y cuarto. (It is quarter past one)

Another difference between English and Spanish when it comes to telling the time is that in English we first say the minutes, whether they are past or before the hour, and then the hour, and in Spanish it is the other way round: we first say the hour and then the minutes.

It is ten to eleven. (Son las once menos diez)

It is half past six. (Son las seis y media)