How to Talk About Time in Russian

Sep 21, 20204 min read

Whether you путешествуете по России (are travelling across Russia) or изучаете русский язык (learning the Russian language), being able to tell the time is important. From asking what time it is to the common words and phrases you need for speaking about hours, minutes and days, this lesson will help you with everything you need to know о времени (about time) in Russian.

Essential Vocabulary Related to Time in Russian

To begin with, there are несколько ключевых русских слов (a few key Russian words) related to time that вам следует знать (you should know) if you want to talk about a beautiful sunrise or let someone know what you're doing in the evening.

Время Time

Утром In The Morning

Днём In The Afternoon

Вечером In The Evening

Ночью At Night

Рассвет Sunrise

Закат Sunset

Полдень Noon

Полночь Midnight

Now that we have the essentials covered, expand your Russian vocabulary by studying слова (words) for periods of time, from seconds to millennium.

Секунда a Second

Минута a Minute

Час an Hour

День a Day

Неделя a Week

Месяц a Month

Год a Year

Десятилетие a Decade

Век a Century

Тысячелетие a Millennium

Telling the Time in Russian

Telling the time in Russian is just a matter of knowing Russian numbers and a few formulas and rules.

How does one ask for the time? In Russian, “What time is it?” literally translates to “Which hour is it?” so we say Который час?

In spoken Russian, it’s common to use the 12-hour system in everyday conversations, while the 24-hour system is more appropriate for official documentation. To answer with a time that’s rounded to the hour, you would say the number + час/часа/часов.

If you're likely to speak Russian in less formal situations, you could just study the 12-hour system memorising 3 different endings for "o'clock":

час for 1 o’clock
часа for 2 through 4 o’clock
часов for 5 through 12 o’clock

00:00 – двенадцать часов ночи / полночь

01:00 – час ночи

02:00 – два часа ночи

03:00 – три часа ночи

04:00 – четыре часа утра

05:00 – пять часов у́тра

06:00 – шесть часов утра

07:00 – семь часов утра

08:00 – восемь часов утра

09:00 – девять часов утра

10:00 – де́сять часов утра

11:00 – одиннадцать часов утра

12:00 – двенадцать часов дня

13:00 – час дня / тринадцать часов

14:00 – два часа дня / четырнадцать часов

15:00 – три часа дня / пятнадцать часов

16:00 – четыре часа дня / шестнадцать часов

17:00 – пять часов вечера / семнадцать часов

18:00 – шесть часов вечера / восемнадцать часов

19:00 – семь часов вечера / девятнадцать часов

20:00 – восемь часов вечера / двадцать часов

21:00 – девять часов вечера / двадцать один час

22:00 – десять часов вечера / двадцать два часа

23:00 – одинадцать часов вечера / двадцать три часа

Note that we add утра (in the morning), ночи (at night) or дня (in the afternoon) to specify whether it’s 3 in the morning or in the afternoon.

If you need to add "minutes" to your answer, you should say:

минута if the last digit is 1
минуты if the last digit is from 2 to 4
минут if the last digit is 0 or from 5 to 9

So eight o'clock twenty-five minutes in the morning will be восемь часов двадцать пять минут утра in Russian.

You can simplify your life by leaving out "o'clock" and "minutes". It's perfectly fine in spoken Russian to say:

Сейчас три утра It's now three in the morning
Давай встретимся в семь тридцать Let's meet at seven-thirty
Давай встретимся в семь тридцать вечера Let's meet at seven-thirty in the evening

What follows below is intended for those students who want to learn the hard way!

You can tell the time using half hours and quarter hours — половина (half) and четверть (quarter).

"Quarter past three" becomes "quarter of the forth hour" while "half past seven" is "half of the eighth hour". Note that we use the ordinal number of the approaching hour in the Genitive case.

Половина второго It's half past one
Четверть одиннадцатого It's quarter past ten

To say it’s a quarter “to” the hour, you would use the formula без (“without”) + четверти + the number of the hour that’s approaching.

Без четверти пять It’s quarter to five
Без четверти одиннадцать It’s quarter to eleven

The "past"/"to" construction is often used with the exact number of minutes.

If it’s less than 30 minutes past the hour, you would name the number of minutes passed + 1 and 21 минута/ 2-4 and 22-24 минуты/ минут for the remaining numbers (“minutes”) + the ordinal number of the approaching hour in the Genitive case.

Десять минут одиннадцатого It's ten minutes past ten
Двадцать одна минута второго It's twenty-one minutes past one

If it’s more than 30 minutes past the hour, you would use the formula без + одной and двадцати одной минуты/ минут for the remaining numbers + the number of the hour that’s approaching. The number of minutes takes the Genitive case while the number of the hour stays in the Nominative case.

Без одной минуты шесть It's one minute to six
Без двадцати пяти минут девять It's twenty-five minutes to nine

As you become even more fluent in Russian, consider adding a few other words below to your vocabulary to further define when something is taking place.