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Units of Time Quiz

By Beeblio ·

How many minutes are in a fortnight? What is shorter — a microsecond or a nanosecond? English has a surprisingly rich set of words for measuring time, stretching from the unimaginably tiny to the sweep of centuries. This quiz works through all of them. It is well suited to B2 learners and above: the arithmetic is straightforward, but the vocabulary — fortnight, lunar month, millennium, decade — is exactly the kind of precise, low-frequency word that separates a good reader from a great one. Work through the 20 questions, then check your answers in the section below. No calculator needed — just pencil, paper, and the vocabulary list at the end.

The Quiz

Sub-second units

  1. Which is shorter — a nanosecond or a millisecond?
  2. Which is shorter — a millisecond or a microsecond?
  3. How many milliseconds are there in one second?

Minutes, hours and days

  1. How many seconds are there in five minutes?
  2. How many minutes are there in a quarter of an hour?
  3. How many seconds are there in two hours?
  4. How many minutes are there in one day?
  5. How many hours are there in one day?
  6. How many hours are there in a weekend?
  7. How many hours are there in one week?

Weeks, months and years

  1. How many minutes are there in a fortnight?
  2. How many days are there in a calendar month?
  3. How many days are there in a lunar month?
  4. How many days are there in a standard (non-leap) year?
  5. How many days are there in a leap year?
  6. How many hours are there in a leap year?

Longer spans

  1. Roughly how many years are there in one generation?
  2. How many years are there in four decades?
  3. How many years are there in a couple of centuries?
  4. How many years are there in a millennium?

Answers & Explanations

Sub-second units

1. A nanosecond is shorter.
A millisecond is a thousandth of a second, a microsecond is a millionth, and a nanosecond is a billionth. A nanosecond is therefore one million times smaller than a millisecond. A 1 GHz processor, for reference, has a cycle close to one nanosecond long.

2. A microsecond is shorter.
A microsecond (1/1,000,000 of a second) is one thousand times smaller than a millisecond (1/1,000 of a second). The prefixes tell the story: milli- = thousandth, micro- = millionth, nano- = billionth.

3. 1,000 milliseconds.
One second contains 1,000 milliseconds.

Minutes, hours and days

4. 300 seconds.
5 minutes × 60 seconds = 300 seconds.

5. 15 minutes.
A quarter of 60 minutes = 15 minutes.

6. 7,200 seconds.
An hour has 60 minutes, and each minute has 60 seconds, so 60 × 60 = 3,600 seconds in one hour. Two hours = 3,600 × 2 = 7,200 seconds.

7. 1,440 minutes.
60 minutes × 24 hours = 1,440 minutes in a day.

8. 24 hours.

9. 48 hours.
A weekend = Saturday + Sunday = 2 days × 24 hours = 48 hours.

10. 168 hours.
7 days × 24 hours = 168 hours.

Weeks, months and years

11. 20,160 minutes.
A fortnight is 14 days (two weeks). 1,440 minutes per day × 14 = 20,160 minutes.

12. It varies — 28, 29, 30 or 31 days.
In the modern Gregorian calendar, the only month with a variable number of days is February, which has 29 days during a leap year and 28 days otherwise. All other months have either 30 or 31 days.

13. Approximately 29.53 days.
Also called a lunation or synodic month, the lunar month has a mean period of 29.53059 days (29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes). That is the mean — the true length varies slightly throughout the year.

14. 365 days.

15. 366 days.
The Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to orbit the Sun. The extra fractional day adds up, so every four years we add an extra day to account for it — that is a leap year.

16. 8,784 hours.
366 days × 24 hours = 8,784 hours.

Longer spans

17. Roughly 20–30 years — it depends on which definition you use.
This question has no single tidy answer, and the original quiz's claim of exactly "25 years" is an oversimplification worth unpacking. A generation is generally considered to be about 20–30 years — the period during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children themselves. In human populations, generation time typically has ranged from 20 to 30 years, with wide variation based on gender and society. For social (cohort) generations, researchers use shorter spans: a generation typically refers to groups of people born over a 15–20 year span. In short, expect any number between roughly 15 and 30 years, depending on context.

18. 40 years.
One decade = 10 years. Four decades = 4 × 10 = 40 years.

19. 200 years.
One century = 100 years. A couple = 2. Two centuries = 200 years.

20. 1,000 years.
A millennium is 1,000 years. A period of 100 years is called a century.

Vocabulary Reference Table

Term Equivalent Notes
Nanosecond 1/1,000,000,000 of a second Prefix nano- = billionth
Microsecond 1/1,000,000 of a second Prefix micro- = millionth
Millisecond 1/1,000 of a second Prefix milli- = thousandth
Second 1,000 milliseconds SI base unit of time
Minute 60 seconds From Latin minuta (small)
Hour 60 minutes / 3,600 seconds
Day 24 hours / 1,440 minutes
Weekend 2 days / 48 hours Saturday and Sunday
Week 7 days / 168 hours
Fortnight 14 days / 20,160 minutes Common in British English; from "fourteen nights"
Calendar month 28–31 days Varies by month and leap year
Lunar month ~29.53 days New moon to new moon (synodic month)
Year 365 days 366 in a leap year
Generation ~20–30 years Varies by definition
Decade 10 years From Greek deka (ten)
Century 100 years From Latin centum (hundred)
Millennium 1,000 years From Latin mille (thousand)

The quiz questions above are adapted from the Big Resource Book by Matt Purland, an essential pack of 101 photocopiable worksheets for mixed language practice at Intermediate level, available free from purlandtraining.com. Matt Purland has generously made these resources available in the public domain, so you are free to use them in any way you choose.

FAQ

What level of English do I need for this quiz?

B2 (Upper-Intermediate) and above is the intended level. The maths is primary-school arithmetic, but words like fortnight, lunar month, millennium and nanosecond are low-frequency items that learners typically encounter only at B2 or higher. If you know all 20 terms confidently, your time vocabulary is at C1 level.

Is "fortnight" used everywhere in English?

Fortnight is standard in British, Australian, Irish and many other varieties of English, and appears regularly in news and legal texts. It is much rarer in North American English, where people usually say "two weeks." If you are studying for an international exam such as IELTS or Cambridge C1 Advanced, knowing fortnight is useful.

Why does a generation not have a fixed number of years?

A generation is generally considered to be about 20–30 years — the average period during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and begin to have children. The exact span shifts depending on whether you are talking about a biological family generation or a social cohort. In sociological research, a generation typically refers to groups of people born over a 15–20 year span. No single authority sets an official figure.

What is the difference between a lunar month and a calendar month?

A calendar month is an administrative unit of 28–31 days, set by the Gregorian calendar. A lunar month (also called a synodic month) is an astronomical measurement: it is the duration between successive new moons, with a mean period of 29.53059 days. Because these two lengths do not align neatly, purely lunar calendars drift against the solar year — which is why Islamic calendar dates shift by roughly 11 days each year relative to the Gregorian calendar.

How can I practise these time words beyond this quiz?

The most effective approach is to meet words repeatedly in meaningful context. Read texts that use these terms naturally — history, astronomy, news — and look them up when you meet them. Spaced repetition (reviewing a word just before you would forget it) is the most research-supported technique for locking low-frequency vocabulary into long-term memory. A free source of quizzes and printable worksheets at the right level is purlandtraining.com.

Sources

If you want to keep working on time vocabulary — and the many other topic areas where precise, low-frequency words make the difference — try reading short texts pitched at your current level in Beeblio. Each tap on an unfamiliar word like fortnight or millennium creates a spaced-repetition card, so the next time you meet it in a reading it will already feel familiar.