Telling Time in Russian

November 9, 2012 Cory

Time is very important. Its what clocks measure. Its what keeps everything from happening at
once. Without time, everything would be chaotic and crazy!
You already know how to tell time in English. But what about in Russian? Thats what were
going to learn about today . So if you dont know how to tell time in Russian, continue reading.
And if you do why not just refresh that knowledge?

Asking the time

To ask what time it is, there are two main phrases you can use.
? What time is it?
This phrase is more formal and official.
? What time is it?
This phrase is more colloquial and conversational. You will hear it more often. You may
even hear ? What time is it now?

24-hour or 12-hour?
You may have a big question Do Russians tell time with 12 hours or 24? In the United States,
the 12-hour clock is dominant in both formal and conversational speech. But in Russia, the 12hour clock is common in conversational speech, while the 24-hour clock is used for official
purposes and almost always dominant when written.
When using the 12-hour clock, Russians do not say am or pm, they instead say:
(of the morning) for 5 am noon
(of the day) for noon 5 pm
(of the evening) for 5 pm midnight
(of the night) for midnight 5 am
So 10 PM may be said as:
Twenty-two hours (24-hour, official)
Ten in the evening (12-hour, conversational)

Oh, and you should know that Russians use a period (.) instead of a colon (:) when they write
time. So, 10:00 is written as 10.00.
If youre a newbie with Russian, you might be wondering Why does come after 22, but
comes after 10?! This will be explained shortly .

Telling time on the hour

Okay, well start with the easy stuff: telling time on the hour (i.e. It is two oclock). This is done
with a fairly simple equation: NUMBER + (hour).
. (It is) two oclock.
Russia is very special when it comes to numbers. Nouns change their endings when they come
after certain numbers. Earlier you saw and . Why is this? This
is because the genitive singular form () is used with numbers 2-4, while the genitive plural
form () is used with numbers 5+. The LAST number is used to determine the ending of the
noun, thats why (22) uses (20) would simply use and
(21) would use .
In official time (24-hour system), is often omitted and is used to express zero. So
18.00 could be read as . Also, is used after when it
used to represent midnight, so 0.00 would be read as .
Were going to focus on conversational time telling for the rest of the post. And with that, here
are all of the full hours expressed with time of day . Continue reading to learn about adding
minutes!
English

Russian

12:00 midnight

. or . (midnight)

1:00 a.m.

2:00 a.m.

3:00 a.m.

4:00 a.m.

5:00 a.m.

6:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

12:00 noon

. or . (midday)

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

5:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

10:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m.

Telling exact time

When adding minutes to the hour, things get a little more complicated.
Time that falls in the first half of the hour (e.g. 1:01-1:30) is expressed with the minutes followed
by an ordinal number in the genitive case that represents the next hour. Therefore, 1:05 is
understood as Five minutes of the second hour: .
12:00-1:00 is the first hour ( ), 1:00-2:00 is the second hour ( ), and so on
so forth.
15 minutes may be said as (15 minutes) or (quarter).
30 minutes may be said as (half), or - affixed to the ordinal number, i.e.
4:30, half of the fifth
You should keep in mind that the noun changes its endings too, just like does. It
becomes after numbers 2-4 and after numbers 5+.
Here are some more examples of telling time in the first half of the hour:
12.01
1.02
2.05
3.15 or
4.30 or

Here are genitive forms of the ordinal numbers: (1st-12th)

Nominative

Genitive

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

Time that falls in the second half of the hour (e.g. 1:31-1:59) is expressed with the preposition
(without) followed by the minutes remaining to the next hour. Therefore, 2:55 is
understood as Five minutes until three: () . The noun may be
omitted completely. Also note that the numbers followed by (without) must be in the
genitive case.
12.31 ()
1.40 ()
2.45
3.55
4.59 ()

Here are the genitive forms of the cardinal numbers: (Use for 1 and for all the
rest)
1 ()
2
3

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
25
29

At a time
To express at a time, you use the preposition or nothing at all.
You use + accusative for whole hours:
. She called at 3 a.m.

You may use + accusative for up to the first half of the hour (optional):
() . She called at 3:05.
You do not use for the second half of the hour:
. She called at 2:55.
You use + prepositional for half-past ():
. She called at 3:30.