São sete horas.

to be

Breakdown of São sete horas.

• a hora: the hour
• sete: seven

Questions & Answers about São sete horas.

Why is it são and not é?

Portuguese uses the verb ser to tell time.

In São sete horas, the understood idea is seven hours, and horas is plural, so the verb is plural too:

• É uma hora. = It’s one o’clock.
• São duas horas. = It’s two o’clock.
• São sete horas. = It’s seven o’clock.

So the basic rule is:

• 1:00 → é
• 2:00 and after → são

Also:

• É meio-dia.
• É meia-noite.

These are singular expressions.

Why is horas plural?

Because Portuguese literally expresses clock time as hours.

So:

• uma hora = one hour / one o’clock
• duas horas = two o’clock
• sete horas = seven o’clock

That is why horas is plural with numbers above one.

Can I leave out horas and just say São sete?

Yes. In everyday Brazilian Portuguese, São sete is very common and natural when the context is clearly about time.

Examples:

• Que horas são?
• São sete.

You can still say São sete horas, and it sounds correct and normal too. The version with horas is just a little fuller.