time

Use the word "time" to find out where you are in the course of a day:

• What time is it?
• Do you have the time?
• Do you know what time it is?
• Can you tell what time it is?
• The time is 7:47 p.m. (The U.S. is on a twelve-hour cycle. Use "a.m." for the first half of the day, and use "p.m." for the second half of the day.)

There are many, many different ways in which "time" is used. We want to know about the passage of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. Here are just a few examples:

• How much time will this take?
• I need more time.
• Do you want more time to make a decision?
• Let’s meet here at this time tomorrow.
• Over time, you will get used to this.
• This place has been here since the beginning of time. (it’s old.)

When talking about the frequency of an action, you can us the word "time."

• How many times a week do you do your laundry?
• How many times have you visited this website?
• Isabel has visited Colombia three times.
• David practices the violin five times a week.

When talking about multiplication, we use the word "times."

• What’s three times four?
• Three times four is twelve.
• What’s ten times ten?
• Ten times ten is one hundred. (Use the singular form of the verb "be" when giving the sum–don’t use "are.")

When the word "time" is a verb or an adjective, it means that activity is measured with a watch.

• You have to take a timed test.
• The teacher will time you.
• I’m going to time you to see how long it takes for this work to be completed.
• Tigist timed herself when running a mile.
• Can you time me?

There are many short, popular expressions that make use of the word "time."

• Time’s up. (Stop what you are doing.)
• It’s time. (Now, we must do something.)
• It’s about time. (You took too long to do something.)
• We had a good time. (We did something fun.)
• Time is money. (Time has a value.)
• The times they are a changing. (Bob Dylan)
• It’s not your time yet. (You’re not going to get something yet.)
• It was his time. (It was the right time for him to die.)
• Don’t waste my time. (I’m not interested in this.)
• Stop wasting time. (Get back to work.)
• You have to do that on your time, not company time. (This is often said when someone is taking care of a personal need or interest at work.)

Finally, the word "time" is used as a proper noun for some newspaper and magazine publications. The New York Times is the newspaper of record in the United States, and Time magazine is one of the most widely-read news magazines in the United States.

Click here to learn more vocabulary.

Date of publication: January 22, 2017