Learn Italian: Sono le tre e un quarto. - It is a quarter past three.

Sono le tre e un quarto.

It is a quarter past three.

Breakdown of Sono le tre e un quarto.

Questions & Answers about Sono le tre e un quarto.

Why does this sentence start with Sono le instead of something like 'È il' for 'It is'?

When telling time in Italian, you are literally saying 'They are the [number] hours'. Because the word for hours (ore) is feminine and plural, we use the plural verb sono (they are) and the feminine plural 'the', which is le.

Since we use sono for most times, when would I use è to say what time it is?

You only use the singular è when referring to one o'clock (È l'una), noon (È mezzogiorno), or midnight (È mezzanotte). For all other numbers, you must use Sono le.

How do you say 'past' when telling time, like in 'a quarter past'?

Italian simply uses e (and) to add minutes to the hour. So 'a quarter past three' is literally expressed as 'three and a quarter' (tre e un quarto).

Why is it un quarto (masculine) if we just used the feminine le?

The feminine le belongs to the hidden word ore (hours). However, un quarto is its own separate noun meaning 'a quarter' or 'one fourth', and it is always masculine.