Free Telling Time in Italian Quiz

How the Italian time quiz works

The quiz asks for the time in four kinds of question:

1. A clock face: type the time in words.
2. A digital time (2:45, 2:45 p.m. or 14:45): type it in words.
3. A time in words: pick the matching clock of four.
4. A time in words: type the digits.

You set the minutes (o'clock, half hours, quarter hours, every five minutes or any minute), the 12-hour or 24-hour clock and the part of the day, as on the telling time in Italian worksheets. Your score runs as you go, Stop shows it with the times you missed, and Practice my mistakes runs those again.

Buttons on the screen type è and é, plus a capital È for the start of a sentence, so you don't need an Italian keyboard. The quiz has no audio, and it runs in your browser, so what you type is never sent anywhere.

Which answers the quiz accepts

Saying the time in Italian often has more than one right answer. For 2:45 the quiz accepts le tre meno un quarto, le due e quarantacinque, le due e tre quarti, un quarto alle tre and manca un quarto alle tre. The Accademia della Crusca calls both un quarto alle tre and le tre meno un quarto correct, and un quarto alle tre is more common in Tuscany. For 2:50 it takes mancano dieci minuti alle tre and sono dieci alle tre as well as le tre meno dieci. For 2:40 it takes le due e quaranta as well as le tre meno venti.

Quarter past can be e un quarto or e quindici, and half past can be e mezza, e mezzo or e trenta. The Treccani dictionary calls e mezzo the more correct form, while e mezza is the one you hear most and the one the worksheets print. In punto (“on the dot”) is optional, so sono le tre and sono le tre in punto both count, and so does sono le tre esatte (“exactly three”).

The parts of the day have soft borders, so the quiz also takes del mattino for di mattina, di pomeriggio for del pomeriggio and della sera for di sera. Near a border, both sides count, and 6 p.m. can be di sera or del pomeriggio. On the 24-hour clock, 00:10 is le zero e dieci or mezzanotte e dieci, and 15:30 is le quindici e trenta or le quindici e mezza. Meno and e tre quarti count as slips there, and the note asks for the minutes as a number, as in le quattordici e quarantacinque for 14:45.

The rules are the same as on the worksheets. One o'clock is a single hour, so it takes è (è l'una), and so do noon and midnight, while every other hour takes sono le (sono le tre). If you type sono l'una, the note reads “One o'clock takes è, not sono: è l'una.” If you type è le tre, it reads “Sono goes with every hour but l'una, mezzogiorno and mezzanotte: sono le tre.”

A slip, such as a missing accent, counts as a miss, but its note names the fix. Typing le tre e ventitre brings up “Check the accents: ventitré.” Typing e l'una brings up “Check the accents: è.” Alle tre on its own is a slip too, because it means “at three o'clock,” the answer to a question that starts A che ora (“At what time”). Its note reads “Alle tre means at 3 o'clock. For what time it is, say sono le tre.”

After any other miss, a one-line reason gives the rule. If your answer is a different real time, the note starts with that time, as in “That reads as 3:45.”

Practice tips

For telling time in Italian practice, start on the 12-hour clock with o'clock and half hours, then add quarter hours and the part of the day. If you're heading to Italy, move to the 24-hour clock early, since timetables, shops and offices there use it. Typing the digits for a time in words is a quick test of meno: le tre meno venti is 2:40, not 3:20. After Stop, run Practice my mistakes before you close the tab.

The Italian numbers to words converter writes out any number that trips you up, such as quarantacinque or ventitré. For paper practice, the telling time in Italian worksheets print the same options with an answer key on its own page. If you learn Spanish or French too, the telling time in Spanish quiz and the telling time in French quiz ask the same four kinds of question.

Frequently asked questions