Russian Time

English

Russian

12:00 midnight

. or . (midnight)

1:00 a.m.

2:00 a.m.

3:00 a.m.

4:00 a.m.

5:00 a.m.

6:00 a.m.

7:00 a.m.

8:00 a.m.

9:00 a.m.

10:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m.

12:00 noon

. or . (midday)

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

5:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

7:00 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

9:00 p.m.

10:00 p.m.

11:00 p.m.

Telling exact time

When adding minutes to the hour, things get a little more complicated.
Time that falls in the first half of the hour (e.g. 1:01-1:30) is expressed with the minutes followed
by an ordinal number in the genitive case that represents the next hour. Therefore, 1:05 is
understood as Five minutes of the second hour: .
12:00-1:00 is the first hour ( ), 1:00-2:00 is the second hour ( ), and so on
so forth.

15 minutes may be said as (15 minutes) or (quarter).

30 minutes may be said as (half), or - affixed to the ordinal number, i.e.
4:30, half of the fifth
You should keep in mind that the noun changes its endings too, just like does. It
becomes after numbers 2-4 and after numbers 5+.
Here are some more examples of telling time in the first half of the hour:
12.01
1.02
2.05
3.15 or
4.30 or

Here are genitive forms of the ordinal numbers: (1st-12th)

Nominative

Genitive

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

11th

12th

Time that falls in the second half of the hour (e.g. 1:31-1:59) is expressed with the preposition
(without) followed by the minutes remaining to the next hour. Therefore, 2:55 is
understood as Five minutes until three: () . The noun may be
omitted completely. Also note that the numbers followed by (without) must be in the
genitive case.

12.31 ()
1.40 ()
2.45
3.55
4.59 ()

Here are the genitive forms of the cardinal numbers: (Use for 1 and for all the
rest)
1 ()
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

18
19
20
21
25
29

At a time
To express at a time, you use the preposition or nothing at all.
You use + accusative for whole hours:
. She called at 3 a.m.
You may use + accusative for up to the first half of the hour (optional):
() . She called at 3:05.
You do not use for the second half of the hour:
. She called at 2:55.
You use + prepositional for half-past ():
. She called at 3:30.