--- title: Reading the clock: hours, minutes and the two hands — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Reading the clock: hours, minutes and the two hands», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A clock with hands is like a race track with two runners: the long hand races all the way round once every hour, and the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / Reading the clock: hours, minutes and… # Reading the clock: hours, minutes and the two hands Lesson 101 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/0/) — A clock with hands is like a race track with two runners: the long hand races all the way round once every hour, and the short hand creeps round only once every twelve hours. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/1/) — The short hand tells the hour and the long hand tells the minutes. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/3/) — The clock face is a circle cut into 12 equal parts. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/4/) — For the long hand each number is worth 5 minutes, so you count in fives: on 3 it is 15 minutes past, on 6 it is 30, on 8 it is 40, and all the way round is 60. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/5/) — The short hand slides slowly between the numbers as the hour goes by. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/6/) — At half past four it sits halfway between 4 and 5, and at 9:50 it is almost on the 10, but the hour is still 9 until the long hand reaches 12. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/7/) — Many clocks also have a thin, fast second hand that goes round once a minute, and old or fancy clocks may write their numbers as Roman numerals, where I is 1, V is 5 and X is 10. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/8/) — On a clock with hands, the short hand shows the hour and the long hand shows the minutes. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/10/) — For the long hand, each number on the clock face stands for 5 minutes, so the long hand on 8 means 40 minutes past (8 × 5 = 40). - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/11/) — There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 12 numbers × 5 minutes = 60. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/13/) — In Britain and Ireland "half four" is short for half past four, 4:30; it does not mean half of four. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/14/) — During the hour the short hand moves slowly towards the next number, so at 9:50 it is nearly on 10 while the hour is still 9. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/15/) — A digital clock shows the hour before the colon and the minutes after it, so 06:05 is five past six; the 0 in front just fills the space. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/16/) — When the long hand is past 6, people often count the minutes "to" the next hour: the long hand on 11 means five to the hour. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/17/) — The thin second hand goes round once every 60 seconds, which is 1 minute. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/18/) — On a Roman clock I = 1, V = 5 and X = 10, so III is 3, VI is 6, IX is 9 and XII is 12; some clocks show 4 as IIII because clockmakers liked how it looked. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/19/) — On a clock face the 12 numbers are spread evenly: 12 at the top, 3 on the right, 6 at the bottom and 9 on the left. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/101-reading-the-clock-hours-minutes-hands/20/) — Mixing up the two hands is the most common clock mistake: always find the short hand first for the hour. - ← previous: [Communication: letters, phones, radio and the internet](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/100-communication-letters-to-internet/) - next →: [Quarter past, quarter to, and how people really say the time](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/102-quarter-past-quarter-to-saying-the-time/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)