Reading a clock face

A clock has the numbers 1 to 12 spaced evenly around its face. It has two hands that point at those numbers:

• the short hand shows the hour;
• the long hand shows the minutes.

Watch the long hand to read the minutes:

• pointing to 12 means o'clock;
• pointing to 3 means quarter past;
• pointing to 6 means half past;
• pointing to 9 means quarter to.

Each number the long hand passes is 5 minutes — so going all the way round the 12 numbers makes 60 minutes, which is one whole hour.

The rules in one place

See it on a clock

Here the short hand points to the 3 and the long hand points to the 12, so the time is 3 o'clock.