How to say time in Czech.

You, who live in the Czech Republic have probably already become acquainted with the way Czechs tell the time. Sure, we also use the "digital" method. But the second, more complicated method is still widely used. I've also found that I use it very often. I'll show you with concrete examples what I'm actually talking about here.

How can we express these times:

7:15

1. Je sedm patnáct. / Je sedm hodin a patnáct minut.

2. Je čtvrt na osm. (použijeme akuzativ, ptáme se čtvrt na koho, co)

7:30

1. Je sedm třicet.

2. Je půl osmé. (použijeme genitiv, ptáme se půl koho, čeho)

7:45

1. Je sedm patnáct. / Je sedm hodin a 15 minut.

2. Je tři čtvrtě na osm. (použijeme akuzativ, ptáme se čtvrt na koho, co)

8:00

1. Je osm (hodin).

That's not so bad, is it? There are two rules to remember.

The first is that we always say the hour we're approaching.

The second is for the numbers 2, 3, 4 - we must remember that we don't say IS (JE) but ARE (JSOU) two, three or four hours (hodiny).

But what if it's not exactly a quarter or a half, how do you do that? We'll show it again with an example.

7:50

1. Je sedm padesát. / Je sedm hodin a padesát minut.

2. Za 10 minut bude osm (hodin).

3. Je tři čtvrtě na osm a pět minut.

7:23

1. Je sedm dvacet tři. / Je sedm hodin a dvacet tři minut.

2. Za sedm minut bude půl osmé.

3. Je čtvrt na osm a osm minut.

It can be confusing, can't it? But I think you already know that you don't need to actively know all the possibilities. What is important is that you aren't surprised and that you can orient yourself when you ask someone for the time and they answer you in this way. All you need is a dead phone, not wearing a watch, and the situation can arise :-)

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