Lesson O'Clock: Fun with Time Expressions
When you're learning English, one of the first things you study is how to tell the time.
It's an important skill if you're traveling in an English-speaking country — you need to understand when you hear, "The train leaves at two o'clock"!
But one thing you're not usually taught is what "o'clock" means.
In the past, people usually told time using the sun.
But the time on a clock is different from the time on something like a sundial, which will change a little depending on the season. So people would say, "It's six of the clock" so it was clear which type of time they were talking about.
And as early as the 15th century, people were shortening "of the clock" to "o'clock." That's why we have an apostrophe there — to show that something has been taken away.
We also use "o'clock" in some other ways that aren't exactly related to telling time.
For example, adults who are feeling thirsty in the afternoon might say, "I think it's beer o'clock." This is a humorous way of saying that it's time for a drink!
This can also be used humorously for other things. For example, if you want to watch a film, you could say, "It's movie o'clock!"
But if you have to get up very early one morning, you could also say you had to wake up at "stupid o'clock," or "silly o'clock."
That's because you think it's a silly time to be waking up!
If you stay up late, you could also say: "I was studying until stupid o'clock last night!"
