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Fichamos a las ocho de la mañana.

Fichamos a las ocho de la mañana.
We clock in at eight in the morning.
From Lesson 533:Office life (fichar, el enchufe, la bronca)·Spanish (Spain)

Questions & Answers about Fichamos a las ocho de la mañana.

I know ficha means a token or a card, but how does fichamos mean we clock in?
The verb fichar originally referred to punching a timecard or index card (una ficha) when arriving at work. Today, it is the standard verb in Spain for clocking in or out of a job, even if you do it digitally or on an app.
Could fichamos also mean we clocked in in the past tense?
Yes, fichamos is exactly the same in both the present tense (we clock in) and the preterite past tense (we clocked in). You would need more context, like adding ayer (yesterday) or todos los días (every day), to know for sure. Here, the English translation shows it is being used in the present.
Why is it de la mañana instead of por la mañana here?
When you state a specific time on the clock, you must use de (as in a las ocho de la mañana). You only use por when talking about a part of the day in general, without giving an exact hour, such as trabajamos por la mañana (we work in the morning).
Why do we use the feminine plural las in a las ocho?
When telling time in Spanish, the article always refers to the hidden noun las horas (the hours). Because horas is feminine and plural, you use las. The only exception is one o'clock, which uses the singular la for la hora (for example, a la una).

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