Lesson 5: Time, Days & Making Plans

Time, Days & Making Plans

“Let's get coffee” becomes a real plan when you agree on a day, a time, and a place. This lesson brings together the numbers, verbs, and café language you have already practiced.

By the end, you should be able to read a clock, write a date, describe a weekly routine, and arrange a meeting. Keep three questions separate: What time is it now? What time does something happen? Which day?

1. Read the clock

Ask ¿Qué hora es? — What time is it?

La/las reflects feminine hora. Match the verb to the hour expression you actually say: la una → es, las dos/tres/etc. → son. This applies beyond exactly 1:00. Es la una y cuarto is 1:15. En punto means “exactly/on the hour”: Son las dos en punto.

Two ways to express 4:45

• Son las cuatro y cuarenta y cinco. — Four forty-five.
• Son las cinco menos cuarto. — A quarter to five.

Both express the same time. In the second, start at 5:00 and subtract 15 minutes to get 4:45. Menos cuarto does not mean “45 minutes”; it means a quarter of an hour before the hour named. You can also hear un cuarto para las cinco, especially in Spanish America. Usage varies; saying the hour plus minutes after :30 is not an error. RAE, time expressions, Edelsa, Colega 4 teacher's guide, Lesson 2

Notice how changing the expression changes agreement:

• 12:45: Son las doce y cuarenta y cinco or Es la una menos cuarto.
• 1:45: Es la una y cuarenta y cinco or Son las dos menos cuarto.

Try it: Say 2:15, 1:30, and 4:45. For the last one, use menos.
Answers: Son las dos y cuarto. Es la una y media. Son las cinco menos cuarto.

2. Specify morning or evening—and “at” a time

De la mañana, de la tarde, and de la noche identify parts of the day. Evening labels vary with local usage and context. To avoid doubt when making a plan, confirm a clock time; do not assume that “evening” always means noche or has one universal starting hour.

Schedules often use the 24-hour clock: 13:15 = 1:15 PM, 19:30 = 7:30 PM. Mediodía is noon; medianoche is midnight. For a very early hour, you may hear las dos de la madrugada — 2:00 AM. Madrugada refers to the hours after midnight before daybreak.

Compare these questions:

Concierto means concert. To say at a time, use a la una or a las + another hour expression: Nos vemos a las siete y media — See you at 7:30. Use en for a place: en la biblioteca — at the library. These pieces fit together:

Quedamos a las siete y media en la biblioteca.
Let's meet at 7:30 at the library.

3. Choose a day

Days and months normally begin with a lowercase letter in Spanish: el lunes, en marzo. Capitalize them at the start of a sentence or when another capitalization rule applies, as in a proper name. Keep the accents in miércoles and sábado. FundéuRAE, days and months

For the scheduling patterns in this lesson:

• Trabajo el lunes. — I work on Monday, one particular Monday.
• Trabajo los lunes. — I work on Mondays, a routine.
• Trabajo de lunes a viernes. — I work Monday through Friday.
• Hoy es lunes. — Today is Monday; no article here.
• Nos vemos este lunes. — See you this Monday; este replaces the article.

Lunes through viernes keep the same spelling in the plural. Sábado → sábados and domingo → domingos: los sábados, los domingos. El fin de semana means the weekend; los fines de semana means weekends. Saturday and Sunday are the weekend days in the example schedules here, but people's days off vary.

Do not translate English “on” word for word: in Trabajo el lunes, the article el handles the scheduling pattern. That does not mean en can never appear with a day: Mi cumpleaños cae en lunes means “My birthday falls on a Monday.” Learn the whole sentence pattern.

Check: Is Tengo clase de español los martes one class next Tuesday or a regular Tuesday class?
Answer: A regular Tuesday class. Tengo means “I have”; clase de español means Spanish class.

4. Put a date on the calendar

A useful written pattern is day + de + month + de + year:

25 de diciembre de 2024 — December 25, 2024.

In a day/month/year form, 5/3/2024 means March 5, 2024. Other date systems exist, so follow the format a form asks for. Writing the month as a word avoids that numerical ambiguity. RAE, dates

Ask ¿Qué fecha es hoy? or ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy? — What's today's date? A model answer is Hoy es el 15 de marzo; Hoy es 15 de marzo is also possible. These are example dates, not a statement about today's actual date.

For birthdays:

¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? — When is your birthday?
Mi cumpleaños es el 22 de marzo. — My birthday is on March 22nd.

Use a cardinal number such as veintidós for the day, rather than translating the English ordinal ending -nd. For the first of the month, both el uno de enero and el primero de enero are used, with regional preferences.

Try it: Write “May 7” and “December 25, 2024” using month names.
Answers: 7 de mayo; 25 de diciembre de 2024.

5. Understand “mañana” in context

Mañana has two jobs. In Voy mañana, it tells you “tomorrow.” In por la mañana, it names the morning. Put both together: mañana por la mañana — tomorrow morning. Likewise, Llego tarde means “I arrive late,” while por la tarde means “in the afternoon/evening.”

Use por la mañana/tarde/noche for a general part of the day. After a clock time, use de: a las ocho de la mañana. Regional alternatives with en, such as en la noche, are also used.

More calendar phrases: esta semana (this week), la semana pasada (last week), la próxima semana / la semana que viene (next week), este mes (this month), and este año (this year).

One past-tense phrase is useful for the practice questions: Llegué means “I arrived”; llego means “I arrive.” Llegué is the yo preterite form of llegar. Learn it here as a phrase:

Llegué a las tres menos cuarto de la tarde.
I arrived at a quarter to three in the afternoon: 2:45 PM.

6. Make—and adjust—a plan

Use tú forms with a friend: ¿Estás libre? (Are you free?), ¿Quieres ir…? (Do you want to go…?), and ¿Tienes planes? (Do you have plans?). Answer with puedo (I can), no puedo (I can't), tengo planes (I have plans), or prefiero… (I prefer…).

Quedamos comes from quedar; here it means arranging to meet. ¿A qué hora nos vemos? is another way to ask for a meeting time. Perfecto (Perfect), de acuerdo (Agreed/Okay), and vale (Okay, especially common in Spain) can accept the plan.

A Friday café plan

Ana: ¿Estás libre el viernes por la tarde?
Are you free on Friday afternoon?

Luis: Sí. ¿Quieres tomar un café?
Yes. Do you want to have a coffee?

Ana: Perfecto. ¿A qué hora quedamos?
Perfect. What time should we meet?

Luis: ¿A las seis?
At six?

Ana: Prefiero a las seis y media. Trabajo hasta las seis.
I prefer 6:30. I work until six.

Luis: De acuerdo. Nos vemos el viernes a las seis y media en el café.
Okay. See you on Friday at 6:30 at the café.

Tomar un café means to have a coffee. Hasta means until. The final sentence confirms all three pieces: el viernes (day), a las seis y media (time), en el café (place).

Check: Are they meeting at 6:00 or 6:30? Why?
Answer: At 6:30, because Ana works until six and proposes a later time.

Carry the pattern to a new activity

¿Quieres ir al cine el viernes? — Do you want to go to the movies on Friday?
Al combines a + el; el cine is the cinema.

Suppose the movie starts at 19:00 and you agree to meet at 18:30. You have 30 minutes before the film starts. Say: La película empieza a las siete. Nos vemos a las seis y media. La película is the film; empieza means “starts.”

If you cannot make a proposed day, give an alternative:

No puedo el martes. Tengo planes. ¿Qué tal el jueves?
I can't on Tuesday. I have plans. How about Thursday?

7. Your final scheduling challenge

You are arranging a study session with a friend. You work on Mondays and Wednesdays. You can meet Thursday at 7:30 PM at the library.

1. Say which days you work regularly.
2. Ask whether your friend is free on Thursday.
3. Suggest the day, time, and place.
4. Your friend accepts. Confirm the plan in one sentence.

One possible exchange:

You: Trabajo los lunes y los miércoles. ¿Estás libre el jueves? ¿Nos vemos el jueves a las siete y media de la tarde en la biblioteca?
I work on Mondays and Wednesdays. Are you free on Thursday? Shall we meet Thursday at 7:30 PM at the library?

Friend: Perfecto.
Perfect.

You: De acuerdo. Nos vemos el jueves a las siete y media en la biblioteca.
Agreed. See you Thursday at 7:30 at the library.

Now replace Thursday with another day and choose your own time. Say the plan aloud without the model, then check the article, a before the time, and en before the place. You have reached the end of this five-lesson course; return to the question bank to practice recalling the language and using it in new combinations.