The simplest way to say at what time something happens in Russian is also the oddest way to the English speaker's mind: by indicating during which hour it occurs. To do so we use the prepositional case after the preposition в. The word час has an irregular form in the prepositional singular, which is часу. The phrase «в первом часу» thus means the period from 12:00 to 12:59. Assume someone asks the question «Когда Борис обычно приезжает домой?» “What time does Boris usually come home?” Here's the complete list of possible responses using this construction.

Since English doesn't have an exact equivalent phrase, sometimes one might fudge in how the phrase is translated, depending on the context. Thus we might translate «Он приехал в шестом часу» as:

• He arrived after five.
• He arrived between five and six.
• He arrived before six.

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."

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."

To say "It is five minutes to two," a Russian literally says "It is now without five two." The word for “without” is без, which is a preposition that governs the genitive case. The "minute" words are often left out, but not necessarily so. When speaking of the minutes to one o'clock, they usually leave the number "one" out and simply say "hour." Examples:

When speaking of minutes till the rest of the hours, they usually leave out the forms of the word "hour." For example:

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."

To the Russian way of thinking, the first hour of the day is made up of the first sixty minutes from midnight to one o'clock (but not including one o'clock). The second hour is from one to just before two. Therefore when saying "It is now 12:01" in Russian you literally say "It is now one minute of the first." For example:

Notice particularly the forms of минута after одна, две, три and четыре.

Other examples:

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."

To say that it is quarter till the hour you use the word for quarter which is четверть. 1:45 in Russian comes out «без четверти два», literally “without a quarter two.” The preposition без takes the genitive case, and четверть is a feminine third declension noun, thus the и ending. Here is a complete listing of times at a quarter to the hour as expressed with четверть.

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."