Time and Dates in Catalan

In Brief

Ask Quina hora és? (“What time is it?”) and answer És la una for one o’clock but Són les dues, les tres... for all other hours. Dates normally follow the order day–month–year: el 14 de febrer de 2026. Days and months are not capitalized in Catalan: dilluns, gener.

Overview

Talking about the time and date is an A1 skill that quickly becomes useful: arranging a meeting, checking opening hours, buying a ticket, or saying when something happened. The foundations are numbers, the verb ser (“to be”), a few articles, and a set of common time words.

Catalan and English organize this information differently in several small but important ways. Catalan says the equivalent of “it is the one” and “they are the two”: És la una but Són les dues. It normally writes dates day first, and it keeps the names of weekdays and months lowercase. Catalan also has a traditional quarter-based way of telling time that counts toward the next hour. Beginners can first learn the transparent i (“past”) and menys (“to”) pattern; the traditional system is explained separately below.

A temporal expression (a word or phrase that locates something in time) can be as short as avui (“today”) or as detailed as dissabte 18 d’abril a dos quarts de nou del vespre (“Saturday, April 18, at 8:30 p.m.”). This article builds from the short forms to complete dates and schedules.

How It Works

Asking and giving the hour

The usual question is:

• Quina hora és? — What time is it?

The word hora is singular in the question. In the answer, Catalan treats one o’clock as singular and later hours as plural:

Time	Catalan	Literal pattern
1:00	És la una.	It is the one.
2:00	Són les dues.	They are the two.
3:00	Són les tres.	They are the three.
12:00	Són les dotze.	They are the twelve.

The feminine forms una and dues agree with the understood feminine noun hora. This is why the clock uses la una and les dues, not un and dos. For an exact hour, add en punt:

• És la una en punt. — It is exactly one o’clock.
• Són les sis en punt. — It is six o’clock sharp.

To ask when an event takes place, use A quina hora...? (“At what time...?”). Answers use a la before one and a les before every other hour:

• A quina hora comença la classe? — What time does class start?
• Comença a la una. — It starts at one.
• Comença a les quatre. — It starts at four.

Do not copy English at mechanically as a without an article: the normal expressions are a la una and a les dues.

Minutes past and minutes to

A widely understood, beginner-friendly system uses i (“and/past”) after the current hour and menys (“minus/to”) before the coming hour.

Clock time	Catalan	Meaning
2:05	les dues i cinc	five past two
2:15	les dues i quart	quarter past two
2:30	les dues i mitja	half past two
2:40	les tres menys vint	twenty to three
2:45	les tres menys quart	quarter to three
2:55	les tres menys cinc	five to three

In a full sentence, add Són: Són les dues i quart. With one o’clock, keep the singular verb and article: És la una i deu. Mitja is feminine because it means half an hour: la una i mitja.

For timetables, screens, transport announcements, and other precise contexts, speakers may simply read the hour and minutes:

• les catorze trenta — 14:30
• les vint-i-una quinze — 21:15

Everyday conversation often uses the twelve-hour clock and adds a part of the day when needed:

Catalan	Approximate use
del matí	in the morning
del migdia	around noon
de la tarda	in the afternoon
del vespre	in the evening
de la nit	at night

So les vuit del matí is 8 a.m., while les vuit del vespre is 8 p.m. Boundaries between tarda, vespre, and nit are not fixed to an exact hour; local habits and the season matter. Noon is migdia, and midnight is mitjanit: Ens veiem al migdia (“We’ll meet at noon”), Arriba a mitjanit (“It arrives at midnight”).

Days of the week

English	Catalan
Monday	dilluns
Tuesday	dimarts
Wednesday	dimecres
Thursday	dijous
Friday	divendres
Saturday	dissabte
Sunday	diumenge

Unlike English, Catalan writes weekdays with a lowercase initial unless they begin a sentence. The forms themselves do not change in the plural. The article shows whether the meaning is singular or repeated:

• La reunió és dilluns. — The meeting is on Monday.
• Treballo els dilluns. — I work on Mondays.
• El dilluns és el dia més llarg. — Monday is the longest day.
• dilluns que ve — next Monday

For a one-off event, the bare weekday is common. Els dilluns clearly means every Monday. Avoid using el dilluns as a direct copy of English “on Monday” in every sentence; depending on context, it can refer to a particular Monday or to Monday as a category.

Months and seasons

English	Catalan	English	Catalan
January	gener	July	juliol
February	febrer	August	agost
March	març	September	setembre
April	abril	October	octubre
May	maig	November	novembre
June	juny	December	desembre

Month names are also lowercase. Use de between a day and a month, and between a month and a year. Before a vowel, de becomes d’:

• el 5 de gener — January 5
• el 12 d’abril — April 12
• el 30 de setembre de 2026 — September 30, 2026
• el mes de gener — the month of January

The seasons are primavera (spring), estiu (summer), tardor (autumn/fall), and hivern (winter). Common combinations include a la primavera, a l’estiu, a la tardor, and a l’hivern.

Saying and asking the date

Useful questions include:

• Quin dia és avui? — What day is it today?
• A quants som? — What is today’s date? (literally, “At what number are we?”)
• Quina data és avui? — What is today’s date?

A complete date normally has the definite article el, followed by the day number, de plus the month, and optionally de plus the year:

• Avui és el 9 de juliol. — Today is July 9.
• Va néixer el 21 de març de 1990. — He/She was born on March 21, 1990.
• divendres 10 d’octubre — Friday, October 10

In all-numeric writing, Catalan normally follows day/month/year order: 10/07/2026 means July 10, 2026. Because an English reader may instinctively read month first, spelling out the month is safest when there could be ambiguity.

Years are expressed with cardinal numbers (ordinary counting numbers). For example, 2026 is dos mil vint-i-sis. A date can be written with a numeral even when it is spoken as a number.

Today, yesterday, tomorrow, and nearby time

Catalan	English
avui	today
ahir	yesterday
demà	tomorrow
abans-d’ahir	the day before yesterday
demà passat	the day after tomorrow
ara	now
aviat	soon
aquesta setmana	this week
la setmana que ve	next week
la setmana passada	last week
aquest any	this year
l’any que ve	next year
l’any passat	last year

These words often appear without a preposition: Ens veiem demà, not a word-for-word equivalent of “on tomorrow.” Combine them with parts of the day using the appropriate article and preposition:

• avui al matí — this morning
• demà a la tarda — tomorrow afternoon
• ahir al vespre — yesterday evening
• aquesta nit — tonight

Examples in Context

Catalan	English	Note
Quina hora és? — És la una.	What time is it? — It is one o’clock.	Singular at one
Són les tres en punt.	It is exactly three o’clock.	Exact hour
Són les set i mitja del matí.	It is 7:30 in the morning.	i mitja = half past
Són les deu menys quart.	It is quarter to ten.	Literally “ten minus a quarter”
A quina hora surt el tren?	What time does the train leave?	Asking about an event
El tren surt a les sis i vint.	The train leaves at 6:20.	a les before a plural hour
La visita és dimarts que ve.	The appointment is next Tuesday.	One specific Tuesday
Anem al mercat els dissabtes.	We go to the market on Saturdays.	Repeated weekday
Avui és dijous 10 de juliol.	Today is Thursday, July 10.	Day–month order
El curs comença el 3 de setembre.	The course starts on September 3.	el before the date
El meu aniversari és al mes de gener.	My birthday is in January.	An explicit month phrase
Demà a la tarda tinc una reunió.	I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon.	Relative day + part of day
Ahir al vespre vam arribar tard.	We arrived late yesterday evening.	Past time expression
Ens veiem demà passat al migdia.	We’ll see each other the day after tomorrow at noon.	Two useful fixed phrases
A l’estiu els dies són més llargs.	In summer, the days are longer.	Season expression

Common Mistakes

Using a plural form for one o’clock

• Wrong: Són les una.
• Right: És la una.
• Why: One o’clock is singular: singular és, article la, and feminine number una. From two onward, use són les.

Saying dos instead of dues for two o’clock

• Wrong: Són les dos.
• Right: Són les dues.
• Why: The understood noun hores is feminine, so standard Catalan uses feminine dues.

Leaving out the article after a

• Wrong: La pel·lícula comença a vuit.
• Right: La pel·lícula comença a les vuit.
• Why: Clock times normally take a la at one and a les at other hours.

Capitalizing days and months like English

• Wrong: Dilluns, 4 de Març
• Right: dilluns, 4 de març
• Why: Catalan weekday and month names are common nouns and normally stay lowercase.

Putting the month before the day

• Wrong: juliol 10 as a normal Catalan date
• Right: el 10 de juliol
• Why: The standard order is day + de + month. Numeric dates also normally use day/month/year.

Adding a preposition before avui, ahir, or demà

• Wrong: Ens veiem a demà.
• Right: Ens veiem demà.
• Why: Basic relative-day words normally stand without a preposition. Fins demà! is the fixed expression “See you tomorrow!”

Usage Notes

Catalan time expressions show some regional and personal variation. The i/menys system is broadly transparent: les quatre i quart, les cinc menys deu. In much of Catalonia, however, the traditional quarter system is frequent in everyday speech. Learners should be ready to recognize both. Digital schedules and formal announcements favor unambiguous numerical times, especially with the 24-hour clock.

Vespre has no single perfect English equivalent. It covers the later part of the day after the afternoon and before night, so translations vary between “evening” and “at night.” Natural choices depend on light, meal times, and local custom rather than a universal cutoff.

For repeated weekdays, els dilluns, els dimarts, and so on are clear and useful. For dates, Catalan does not normally need an English-style ordinal ending such as “10th”: el 10 de juliol uses the ordinary number. In speech and informal writing, context often allows speakers to omit parts that are already obvious: Ens veiem a les set needs no part of the day if both speakers know which seven is intended.

Beyond the Basics: Traditional Quarter Time

You do not need to produce this system immediately at A1, but you will hear it, especially in Catalonia. It counts completed quarters toward the next hour:

Clock time	Traditional Catalan	How to interpret it
1:15	un quart de dues	one quarter toward two
1:30	dos quarts de dues	two quarters toward two
1:45	tres quarts de dues	three quarters toward two
1:20	un quart i cinc de dues	one quarter and five minutes toward two
1:25	dos quarts menys cinc de dues	five minutes before two quarters toward two

The key difference from English is the reference hour. Dos quarts de nou is 8:30, not 9:30: two quarters have passed on the way to nine. When you hear de nou, first identify nine as the coming hour, then count backward by the stated quarters.

The form quarts is plural after dos and tres, while un quart is singular. Around exact times, speakers can add tocat/tocades (“just past”) or ben bé and other colloquial refinements, but these are not necessary for basic communication. Regional varieties may prefer other ways of expressing the same clock time, which is another reason to understand the standard i/menys forms as well as the quarter system.

More advanced date language includes ranges and deadlines:

• del 3 al 7 de juny — from June 3 to June 7
• entre dilluns i dimecres — between Monday and Wednesday
• abans de divendres — before Friday
• d’aquí a dues setmanes — two weeks from now
• fa tres dies — three days ago

Notice the useful contrast between d’aquí a for a point in the future and fa for elapsed time before now. These structures belong to later study, but they grow directly from the dates and numbers learned here.

Practice Tips

1. Build a daily two-line routine. Say the real date and time aloud: Avui és divendres 10 de juliol. Són les vuit i deu. Change the time later in the day so both singular and plural forms become automatic.
2. Read a weekly calendar in Catalan. Describe one-off events with a bare weekday and habits with a plural article: Tinc classe dimarts versus Tinc classe els dimarts.
3. Train both clock systems separately. First master i/menys. Then draw a clock and decode un quart, dos quarts, and tres quarts by always looking toward the next hour.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Numbers — supplies the cardinal numbers and the feminine forms una and dues used for clock time and dates.
• Next steps: Daily Routine — puts times and parts of the day into sentences about schedules, habits, and everyday activities.