Learning About the Clock (Ten To and Ten Past)

You might have already learned about whole hours, half hours and quarter hours. When we talk about one quarter, we split the hour into four parts. Now you will look at the clock when we split the hour in parts of $10$ 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 $2$, $4$, $8$ and $10$.

On the digital clock, these times are shown when the last two digits are $10$, $20$, $40$ and $50$.

• When the time is $10$ minutes after a half or a whole hour, we say that the time is ten past.

• When the time is $10$ minutes before a half or a whole hour, we say that the time is ten to.

Here are some examples where you can test yourself.