Telling the Time in Turkish: Saat kaç?

Turkish asks about the time with two questions, and each has its own answer words. Saat kaç? ("what time is it?") asks about now: Saat üç ("it’s three o’clock"), Saat üç buçuk ("it’s half past three"). Saat kaçta? ("at what time?") asks when something happens, and the answer takes the locative: Film üçte başlıyor ("the film starts at three"), Ders dokuz buçukta ("the lesson is at half past nine").

For minutes past the hour, the hour takes the accusative -ı, because geçmek ("to pass") passes something: Saat üçü on geçiyor ("it’s ten past three"). For minutes to the hour, the next hour takes the dative -a, and var counts what is left: Dörde on var ("it’s ten to four"). In a sentence about when something happens, the two words change: geçiyor becomes geçe and var becomes kala: Üçü on geçe çıkıyoruz ("we leave at ten past three"). çeyrek is a quarter, and buçuk is a half after a number.

The endings change the numbers’ shape, as they do on any noun. After a vowel a y bridges the gap: ikiyi, altıya, yediyi. dört softens before a vowel: dördü, dörde. The locative hardens after a hard consonant: üçte, dörtte, beşte. And yarım on its own is half past twelve: Saat yarım.