Am stands for morning and pm stands for afternoon or evening. You can use mnemonics like 'am' for 'ante meridiem' (before noon) and 'pm' for 'post meridiem' (after noon).
Examples of minutes past the hour include '15 minutes past,' '30 minutes past,' and '45 minutes past.' It indicates that the minute hand is on the right side of the clock face.
We use 'minutes to' when the minute hand is on the left side of the clock face. For example, if it's 10:50, we say it's '10 minutes to 11.'