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."

The phrases "Когда?" and "Во сколько?" and "В котором часу?" can all mean "At what time?" Oddly enough, even though "В котором часу?" asks the question in the locative-prepositional case, the answer usually comes in the form of a time phrase in the accusative case after the preposition в.

Examples:

To express the idea that something happens on the hour straight up, the preposition в is used with the accusative case. Thus in the phrase «в час» “at one o'clock” the word час is put in the accusative case. Notice also that the Russians do not usually express the number один, but rather the let the singular form of час do all the work. In «в два часа» it's the word два that is in the accusative case, and then the number два requires the genitive singular of час. That holds true in the phrases «в три часа» and «в четыре часа» as well. For all the rest of the o'clocks, e.g. «в пять часов», etc., the numbers require the genitive plural of час.

Here we have a table with all the possible times of day on the hour.

These time phrases can also be used in the past and future tenses.

The words полдень noon and полночь midnight are also used in time telling in the accusative case:

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."

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."