To say "at five minutes to two" a Russian literally says "without five two," where the preposition без means without and 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." For example:

When speaking of "minutes till" for the other hours of the clock, they usually leave out the word "hour." Other examples:

Other entries dealing with time are under the categories "Time phrases" and "What time is it" and "At what time."

To the Russian way of thinking, the first hour the sixty minutes from midnight to (but not including) one. The second hour is between one and two. Therefore when saying "at twelve oh one" in Russian you literally say "at one minute of the first." The number phrases after в show up in the accusative case. For example:

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 "at a quarter to two," a Russian literally says "without a quarter two," where the preposition без means without and governs the genitive case. The word четверть means quarter and is a feminine third-declension noun which takes и in the genitive signular. When speaking of a quarter to one, they usually leave the number "one" out and simply say "hour." When speaking of the other "quarter tos," they usually leave out the word "hour."

For most time phrases, the way you say “It is now such-and-such o'clock” is different from the way you say “It happened at such-and-such o'clock.” When addressing times that are a quarter to the hour, however, the “what time is it” construction is the same as the “at what time” construction. Thus:

The time expression can also be used in the past and future tenses:

Since most other "at such-and-such a time" phrases start with the preposition в, it's a common mistake by beginning students of Russian to assume that the same holds true for times at a quarter to the hour. It does not. One never says in Russian «в без четверти семь»:

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 the sixty minutes from midnight up to (but not including) one a.m. The second hour is between one and two. Therefore when saying "It starts at 1:15" in Russian you literally say "It starts at one quarter of the second."

To express the idea that something happens on the quarter hour, the preposition в is used with the accusative case, not the prepositional. The word четверть means quarter. Here's a complete list of typical time phrases on the quarter hour.

The same time expressions work in the past and future as well.

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 the sixty minutes from midnight up to (but not including) one a.m. The second hour is between one and two. Therefore “It starts at 7:30” is literally phrased “It starts at half of the eighth.”

To express the idea that something happens on the half hour, the preposition в is used with the prepositional case, not the accusative. The word половина means half. Here's a complete list of typical time phrases on the half hour.

The same time expressions work in the past and future as well.

There is also an abbreviated way of saying the same thing where «пол» a morpheme meaning “half,” combines with the genitive ordinal number to make a single word that indicates half past the hour. That's right: Russian has a single word that means “one thirty,” and another one that means “two thirty,” etc. Here's a complete listing.

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."