Telling time: Hours

stasya | 11.06.2012 | 5

If you want to ask the time you should say:

Котра (зараз) година? — What time is it (now)?

or

О котрій годині? — At what time?

година — hour, feminine,

хвилина — minute, feminine,

Both of them decline like рука.

Now let's have a closer look on how to tell the time in Ukrainian.

Image: /upload/article_images/27_7655f978fdf927e83b6432ec5a2d051c.png

You can tell time in Ukrainian in two ways:

Formal way

Popular way

  1. If it is a full hour:

    …:00 — ordinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, singular) + “година” (Nominative case, feminine, singular).

    Examples:

    05:00 — п'ята година (fifth hour);

    09:00 — дев'ята година (ninth hour).

  2. If in between 02 and 30 minutes preposition на must be used.

    …:… — cardinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, plural) + [“хвилин” (Genitive case, feminine, plural)] + на + ordinal numeral (Accusative case, feminine, singular).

    Examples:

    09:05 — п'ять [хвилин] на десяту (five minutes on tenth);

    07:10 — десять [хвилин] на восьму (ten minutes on eighth).

  3. If in between 30 and 59 minutes preposition за or до must be used.

    Example:

    06:55 — за п'ять сьома, meaning that in/after 5 minutes there will be seven o'clock;

    or

    06:55 — п'ять до сьомої, meaning there are 5 minutes left to 7 o'clock.

    Therefore:

    …:… — за + cardinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, plural) + [“хвилин” (Genitive case, feminine, plural)] + ordinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, singular);

    or

    …:… — cardinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, plural) + [“хвилин” (Genitive case, feminine, plural)] + до + ordinal numeral (Genitive case, feminine, singular).

    Examples:

    09:40 — за двадцять [хвилин] десята (in/after twenty minutes tenth) or двадцять [хвилин] до десятої (twenty minutes to ten);

    03:55 — за п'ять [хвилин] четверта (in/after five minutes fourth) or п'ять [хвилин] до четвертої (five minutes to fourth).

  4. quarter past…/quarter to…

    a quarter — чверть (feminine)

    …:15 — чверть (Nominative case, feminine, singular) + ordinal numeral (Accusative case, feminine, singular);

    …:45 — за + чверть (Nominative case, feminine, singular) + ordinal numeral (Nominative case, feminine, singular);

    or

    …:45 — чверть (Nominative case, feminine, singular) + до + ordinal numeral (Genitive case, feminine, singular).

    Examples:

    02:15 — чверть на третю (a quarter on third);

    02:45 — за чверть третя (in/after a quarter third) or чверть до третьої (a quarter to third).

  5. half past…

    a half (an hour) — пів (години)

    …:30 — пів + на + ordinal numeral (Accusative case, feminine, singular);

    or

    …:30 — пів + до + ordinal numeral (Genitive case, feminine, singular).

    Examples:

    05:30 — пів на шосту (a half on sixth);

    10:30 — пів до одинадцятої (a half to eleventh).

  6. in the morning/afternoon/evening, at night

    The main parts of the day are:

    morning — ранок (apprx. 05:00-12:00),

    noon — полудень, обід (12:00),

    afternoon — після обіду, день (apprx.12:00-18:00),

    evening — вечір (apprx.18:00-22:00),

    midnight — північ (00:00),

    night — ніч (apprx. 22:00-05:00).

    • If it's morning we tend to add ранку (Genitive form of “ранок”):

      07:00 — сьома [година] ранку (seventh hour of morning);

      08:10 — десять [хвилин] на дев'яту ранку (ten minutes on ninth hour of morning).

      Я встаю о шостій ранку. — I wake up at six o'clock in the morning.

    • If it's afternoon we tend to add дня (Genitive form of “день”):

      15:00 — третя [година] дня (third hour of day);

      13:40 — за двадцять [хвилин] друга дня (in/after twenty minutes second hour of day).

      Зараз за п'ять четверта дня. — It is five minutes to four in the afternoon now.

      Ми будемо дивитись фільм о другій дня. — We will watch the movie at two o'clock in the afternoon.

    • If it's evening we tend to add вечора (Genitive form of “вечір”):

      18:00 — шоста [година] вечора (sixth hour of evening);

      20:20 — двадцять [хвилин] на восьму вечора (twenty minutes on eighth hour of evening).

      Він прийматиме ванну о сьомій вечора. — He will be having a bath at seven o'clock in the evening.

    • If it's night we tend to add ночі (Genitive form of “ніч”):

      02:00 — друга [година] ночі (second hour of night).

      Телефон задзвенів о першій ночі. — The phone rang at one o'clock at night.

    The time intervals are approximate, especially for evening, night and morning. Some can tell that 23:00 is still evening, or that 03:00 is already morning and so on. One say that morning begings when the sun sets and others can still say three o'clock in the morning, even though it's pitch black outside. If you feel like it's too late to say ‘in the evening', say ‘at night', as long as people understand what do you mean.

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