Russian Word of the Day

There are three ways to ask “When?” in Russian if you are referring to the time of day, and they are «Когда?» “When?”, «Во сколько?» “At what time?”, and «В котором часу?» “In which hour?”. «Когда?» is the most common, followed by «Во сколько?» and although «В котором часу?» is perfectly grammatical, it is slowly becoming less common nowadays.

When answering these questions, Russian again uses quite a few different constructions, just as it does when answering the question “What time is it?” Specifically one has to distinguish when something happens:

• right on the hour, or
• at a quarter after the hour, or
• at a quarter to the hour, or
• at half past the hour, or
• at a particular minute during the first half of the hour, or
• at a particular mintue during the second half of the hour, or
• generically somewhere between one hour or another.

Over the next couple of weeks we will explore the details of those constructions.

Other entries dealing with time are soon to come. Look for them under the categories "Time phrases" and "What time is it" and "At what time."