This mini episode offers an important tip about using “o’clock.”
Episode 253 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode with an important tip about using “o’clock.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi! This is Diab, from Yemen. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 253 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode—once again—I am going to talk about…
A Secret of Native Speakers.
That’s right. I am going to talk about another Secret of Native Speakers. This is something that all native speakers know, but it’s something that might not be in a textbook, and you might not learn it in a class.
And this Secret of Native Speakers is about time—or how we talk about time. It’s about how we use the word o’clock. O’clock. That’s kind of a strange word, isn’t it? I’m talking about o-apostrophe-c-l-o-c-k. O’clock. As in “The movie starts at nine o’clock,” or “She often wakes up at seven o’clock.”
What is the secret about o’clock? Well, maybe it’s not actually a secret, but it could be something that you have not thought about or something that you are not aware of.
Here it is: we only use o’clock when we are talking about a whole hour. What I mean by that is, only when we are talking about one or two or three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, or twelve. We never use o’clock when we are talking about 15 minutes past the hour or 45 minutes past the hour.
In other words, you will only hear things like “two o’clock, three o’clock, four o’clock.” But you will never hear “2:30 o’clock” or “3:15 o’clock” or “4:45 o’clock.”
No, we only use o’clock with a whole number: one, two, three, and so on.
That’s it. That’s the whole secret. If you learn this secret, then you will be able to say these times just like native English speakers.
Outro
This is the end of episode 253 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Diab recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.