How to Tell Time to the Nearest Minute (Animated)

An analog clock has several important parts that help us tell time.Each number on the clock represents a five-minute interval. When the minute hand points to a number, it shows how many groups of five minutes have passed.Between each number, there are four small marks. Each mark represents one minute.The clock has two main hands. The shorter blue hand is the hour hand.The longer red hand is the minute hand, which makes a complete circle in one hour.When the minute hand makes one complete rotation around the clock, sixty minutes have passed.Remember: each number represents five minutes, each small mark represents one minute, making a total of sixty minutes in one complete rotation.The hour hand moves slowly between numbers as time passes.Notice how when it's 3:25, the hour hand is about a quarter of the way between 3 and 4.The minute hand moves much faster, making a complete rotation every hour.To read the minutes, first look at which number the minute hand points to. Each number represents five minutes.Let's look at another example. Here's 7:40.The hour hand is now two-thirds of the way between 7 and 8, showing it's closer to 8 than 7.The minute hand points to 8, which means 40 minutes, since each number represents 5 minutes and 8 times 5 is 40.For our final example, let's look at 11:52.The hour hand is almost at 12, and the minute hand is just past 10. We count 50 minutes for the 10, plus two more individual minute marks, giving us 52 minutes.Now try saying this time yourself!