This article investigates the interplay of time words with how children position hands on an analog clock. Using a mathematics discourse framework (Sfard, 2008), we analyzed how students interpreted precise (e.g., 2:30) and relative (e.g., half past 11) times, finding that particular words are dynamically interwoven with activity. Interviews with students in Grades 2 and 4 revealed that different prompts led to different narrative descriptions about time on the clock, with precise times leading to whole-number descriptions and relative times to part-whole descriptions consistent with fractions. Subsequent analysis of assessment performance for students across Grades 2-5 corroborated that specific time prompts led to particular clock interpretations. Implications for theory and the K-12 treatment of time measure are discussed.