Learn how to ask about the time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| No matter where you are, you will always have some place to be! In this lesson, we'll look at the question that will give you the tools to ask how much time you have left to get there. We'll also give you the tools to understand the answer! |
Lesson focus |
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| In Afrikaans, "What time is it?" is Hoe laat is dit? Let's break it down by syllable. |
| (slow) Hoe laat is dit? |
| Hoe laat is dit? |
| The first word, hoe, means, "how." |
| (slow) hoe |
| hoe |
| The next component is laat, and it means, "late," referring to time. |
| (slow) laat |
| laat |
| Next, we have is meaning ”is” or “to be.” |
| (slow) is |
| is |
| Finally, we have dit, which means, "it." |
| (slow) dit |
| dit |
| All together, we have Hoe laat is dit? "What time is it?" |
| Let's go over hours here. "Hour" in Afrikaans is uur. |
| (slow) uur |
| uur |
| To say A.M. and P.M. in Afrikaans we say, voormiddag and namiddag respectively. For example, "9:00 A.M." will be 9 uur voormiddag. |
| (slow) 9 uur voormiddag. |
| 9 uur voormiddag. |
| Let's cover how to answer the question Hoe laat is dit? or “What time is it?” in Afrikaans now. |
| First, you say, dit is which means "it is," and then the time. Let's see it one more time, dit is and the time. |
| Let's practice with 6:00 P.M. using this pattern. "It's 6:00 P.M." in Afrikaans can be said as Dit is ses uur namiddag. Let's break it down by syllable. |
| (slow) Dit is ses uur namiddag. |
| Dit is ses uur namiddag. |
| The first words, dit is, mean, "it is." |
| (slow) dit is |
| dit is |
| Then you have the time and time of day, which is ses uur namiddag, meaning “6:00 P.M." |
| (slow) ses uur namiddag |
| ses uur namiddag |
| Altogether, we have Dit is ses uur namiddag. meaning “It's 6:00 P.M." |
| Let's now try to say, "It's 6:00 A.M." In Afrikaans, this would be Dit is ses uur voormiddag. |
| (slow) Dit is ses uur voormiddag. |
| Dit is ses uur voormiddag. |
| We again have, dit is meaning ”it is" and then the time, ses uur voormiddag. |
| Let's go over minutes now. The plural word "minutes" in Afrikaans is minute. |
| (slow) minute |
| minute |
| Note that it's the plural of the word minuut which means ”minute.” Here’s one important note. In Afrikaans, the “minutes” first, then “hours.” Also, as we mentioned before, the hours and minutes are always expressed by the cardinal numbers. The cardinal numbers will be een "one", twee "two", drie "three", vier "four", and so on. So these are the numbers we introduced in the lesson about counting. |
| Let's have a look at some examples. For example, you want to say, "It's 3:20 P.M." In Afrikaans "It's 3:20 P.M." is Dit is twintig oor drie namiddag. |
| (slow) Dit is twintig oor drie namiddag |
| Dit is twintig oor drie namiddag |
| First, we have dit is meaning “it is.” |
| (slow) dit is |
| dit is |
| Then we have the number for minutes, twintig meaning “20” |
| (slow) twintig |
| twintig |
| The minutes are followed by the word for ‘past’ in Afrikaans. Oor. |
| (slow) Oor |
| Oor |
| Then we have the hours, drie meaning “three” |
| (slow) drie |
| drie |
| Altogether we have Dit is twintig oor drie namiddag. "It's 3:20 P.M." |
| Literally, it means “It’s 20 past three.” |
| Using the same pattern, you can say "It's 9:10 AM." Or literally, “It’s 10 past 9.” In Afrikaans this would be Dit is tien oor nege voormiddag. |
| (slow) Dit is tien oor nege voormiddag. |
| Dit is tien oor nege voormiddag. |
| In this case, the sentence would be Dit is tien oor nege. The only time you will have to use the word uur meaning ”hour" is when you have a whole hour. Like 10:00 P.M. or 06:00 A.M., etc. |
| "It's 5:55 P.M.," in Afrikaans, is Dit is vyf voor ses. |
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