"Sono le otto meno un quarto."

Translation: It is quarter to eight.

[rseyferth]

"It is a quarter to eight" should be right as well, I think.

[JamesAdam]

"it's A quarter to eight" is grammatically correct in British English.

[ragnar82]

I'm American and I hear and use both "quarter to" and "quarter of eight" frequently.

[Quazar]

They use more of a American English on duolingo. But they try to accommodate for both so "Its A quarter to eight" may sound odd in America but maybe its an alternate solution.

[ziggKogg]

"it's a quarter to eight" is the correct way of saying this phrase, maybe depending on the region of the USA the "a" isn't heard or emphasized.

[Soglio]

Here in Pennsylvania, "a quarter to eight" sounds OK to me.

[ziggKogg]

Why do you use "sono" in this sentance?

[ThinkerDreamer]

Because when telling the time, you say literally "the hours are..." "le ore sono..."

:)

[ben_blue]

I believe there is a bug here for reading this sentence. I never have a problem with reading but i repeated thos one over twenty tomes and it still does not want to accept my 'meno un quarto'.

[Benjamin707826]

Same!

[SamHansen]

Why is le used here?

[Ariaflame]

Because 'otto' is actually plural. 8 being greater than 1. It's basically when telling time it's nearly always le + number. One is different. See http://italian.about.com/cs/travel/ht/telltimeitalian.htm for details

[camera588]

quarter of eight is also correct when speaking

[lexablackbird]

Native speaker of American English here, but "quarter of" always confused me. I mean, a quarter of eight sounds like it should more literally mean 7:15, so I always use "quarter to" instead.

[OllieQ]

Can someone please break this sentence down and explain it to me? I'm heavily confused. "They are the 8 less a 4"

[dhunteroz]

Time in italian is usually told as "Sono le number" like "Sono le otto" similar to how we say "It is eight". Except in italian when using numbers (higher than 1) they use the plural "sono" instead of "è".

Sono le otto = it's eight

meno un quarto = less a quarter

Note: It's "quarto" (quarter or 4th) not quattro (4)

[OllieQ]

Perfect. How about for one? Would it be "E il un" ? Does that mean it's 1pm?

[dhunteroz]

They use "è l'una" (12h time) and "sone le tredici" (24h time).

[LutzvonGra]

I guess literal translation is "The (hours) are eight minus a quarter"