Questions & Answers about Son exactamente las cinco y cuarto.
Why do we use son las instead of just 'es' for 'it is'?
In Spanish, you use the pluralverbson (they are) for any time after one o'clock because you are literally counting the hours. You also use the feminine plural article las because it refers to the hidden word horas (hours). If it were one o'clock, you would use the singular: es la una.
I always mix up cuarto and cuatro. What is the difference here?
It is a very common mix-up! Cuarto means 'quarter' (15 minutes), while cuatro means the number 'four'. Notice how the 'r' and 't' swap places. Here, y cuarto means 'and a quarter', so it is 15 minutes past the hour. If you said y cuatro, it would mean exactly four minutes past five!
Why do we use y here to mean 'past'?
To tell time in Spanish, you state the hour and then literally add the minutes using y (and). So, las cinco y cuarto translates word-for-word as 'the five and a quarter'.
Could I put exactamente at the end of the sentence instead?
Yes, you can! Spanish word order is flexible. SayingSon las cinco ycuarto exactamente is perfectly natural and just shifts a little bit of the emphasis to the very end of the sentence.