How Much Time Have You Got Left?

Introduction

This post is about measuring time in in general in Spanish, and indicating how much time is left in particular.

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague. You are engaged in a task or project with finite amount of time allocated to it.

The other person wants to know how you are doing for time and says to you: how much time have you got left?

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and say:

¿Cuánto tiempo te queda?

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be more formal and say:

¿Cuánto tiempo le queda?

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OUR TIP

Answering the question should be quite straightforward. In fact, just indicating a length of time should be sufficient. You may need to be careful to make sure that you get the correct units of time The notes below* should help you make sure of that.

With that in mind, you could say:

• Sólo me quedan^** unos segundos (I have only a few seconds left)
• Me queda^** un cuarto de hora (I have a quarter of an hour left)
• Me queda^** media hora (I have half an hour left)
• Me quedan^** tres cuartos de hora (I have three quarters of an hour left)
• Me queda^** una hora (I have an hour left)
• Me quedan^** seis horas (I have six hours left)
• Me queda^** un día (I have a day left)
• Me quedan^** cinco días (I have five days left)
• Me queda^** una semana (I have a week left)
• Me quedan^** cuatro semanas (I have four weeks left)
• Me queda^** un mes (I have a month left)
• Me quedan^** tres meses (I have three months left)
• Me queda^** un año (I have a year left)
• Me quedan^** dos años (I have two years left)

**Notes

Please note the use of the verb “quedar” to indicate the amount of time which is left. Note also that both “me queda” and “me quedan” mean: 'I have got left'.

• We use “me queda” with singulars, that is when meaning one single unit of time (for example, one second, one minute, one quarter of an hour, one hour, one day, etc.)
• We use “me quedan” with plurals, that is when meaning more than one unit of time (for example, more than one seconds, minutes, hours, days, etc.)

Now you should practise answering the question:

¿Cuánto tiempo te queda?

*See some commonly used units of time in Spanish below

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*Spanish Time Units

Some time units commonly used in Spanish are shown below:

Español	English
una milésima de segundo	a thousand of a second
un segundo	a second
un minuto	a minute
un cuarto de hora	a quarter of an hour
media hora	half an hour
tres cuartos de hora	three quarters of an hour
una hora	an hour
un día	a day
una semana	a week
un mes	a month
un año	a year
un quinquenio	a five year period
un lustro	a five year period
un decenio	a decade
un siglo	a century
un milenio	a millennium

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