A1–B1 Numbers Telling the time Reading
Time-Tap
Tap when the spinning clock matches the German time.
German time phrases help you arrange plans and understand when something happens. Halb neun means 8:30, half an hour before nine. Viertel nach drei is 3:15, and viertel vor vier is 3:45. You also meet formal expressions with Uhr, such as dreizehn Uhr fünfzehn for 13:15.
The more you play this game, the better you will be able to understand times mentioned in conversation and make sense of plans for an appointment or meeting with a friend. Match the phrase with the hands of the rotating clock, then try saying the time yourself.
A round takes two minutes. Try one during a short wait, or add it to a daily habit.
Two systems. Formal/digital uses 24-hour Uhr-style readings: dreizehn Uhr fünfzehn (13:15), zwanzig Uhr dreißig (20:30). Colloquial spoken German uses halb, viertel, vor and nach: halb neun (8:30, literally "half to nine"), viertel nach drei (3:15), viertel vor elf (10:45), fünf vor halb sechs (5:25). Time-Tap drills both so you can switch between train-station German and conversation German on the fly.
Halb refers to the next hour. Halb neun means halfway to nine, so it is 8:30. Seeing the phrase on a clock gives you a clear example to review.
Kurz vor means shortly before, and kurz nach means shortly after. Kurz vor zehn might mean around 9:55, and kurz nach fünf around 5:05. These are approximate expressions, so the exact time depends on the situation.
Connect a German phrase with a clock showing the time. In Time-Tap, you read the expression and wait for the rotating hands to match it. After a round, say a familiar time aloud or use it to make a simple plan.
Yes. The game works through five-minute intervals and the full range of expressions - formal 24-hour (zwanzig Uhr fünfzehn), classic colloquial (halb sieben, viertel vor vier), and the trickier ones like fünf vor halb sechs and kurz nach zehn. Early rounds stay on quarter-hours, which is the right starting point for A1 learners.
The game is for A1–B1 learners. Simple quarter-hour phrases are a useful starting point. Later expressions, such as fünf vor halb sechs, give you more detail to practice.