Chapter 6.2 Telling Time

In this lesson, we are going to practice using our number skills to tell time and parts of the day.

The word for “o’clock” in Tamil is “mani” (மணி). We add the number before this word to say time. Two o’clock would be “Irandu mani” “இரண்டு மணி”.

List of Time:

Note: Only the number one changes from ‘Ondru” to “oru”

The word for minute is நிமிடம். To say the correct time, we add the “Mani” followed by the “nimidam” Two twenty (2:20) will be இரண்டு மணி இருவது நிமிடம். It is acceptable to just say “இரண்டு இருவது” in a conversation about time.

Parts of the Day:

In spoken Tamil we say:

காலை மணி எட்டு பத்து (Morning eight ten)

மதியானம் 1:00 மணி (afternoon one o’clock)

சாய்திரம் 5:00மணி (evening 5:00 o’clock)

ராத்திரி பத்து மணி (night 10:00 o’clock)

Telling time in spoken Tamil © Vidya Mohan 2024, CC BY-NC 4.0

Activity for telling time: H5P