Learning About the Clock (Five To and Five Past)

You might have already learned about whole hours, half hours, quarter hours and ten to and ten past. This is almost the same as when we were looking at ten to and ten past, where we split the hour into parts of ten. Now you will split the hour into even smaller parts: parts of $5$ minutes, We are moving on and looking at five to and five past. When we talk about one quarter, we split the hour into four pieces. Now you will look at the clock when we split the hour in parts of $5$ minutes. As I taught you earlier, an hour consists of $60$ minutes. That means that in one hour, there are $6$ parts of $10$ minutes each.

On the analog clock, these times are when the minute hand point to the number $1$, $5$, $7$ and $11$.

On the digital clock, these times are shown when the last two digits are $05$, $25$, $35$ and $55$.

• When the time is $5$ minutes after a half or a whole hour, we say that the time is five past.

• When the time is $5$ minutes before a half or a whole hour, we say that the time is five to.

Does this match with the above figure? Below are some examples where you can try for yourself.