Telling Time in Turkish: Saat Kaç? Half Past, Quarter To and 'At What Time'

To ask “What time is it?” in Turkish, say Saat kaç? The answer is Saat üç (It’s three o’clock), Saat üç buçuk (half past three), or a phrase with geçiyor (past) or var (to), such as Üçü çeyrek geçiyor (quarter past three). To ask when something happens, the question becomes Saat kaçta? (At what time?), and the answers change shape too.

Telling time in Turkish rests on three case endings: the accusative for “past”, the dative for “to” and the locative for “at”. That makes it a good real-world workout for the noun cases. You’ll need the numbers 1–59 as well: the numbers page covers them and the number converter spells out any number.

The key words

Pronunciation hints are rough English approximations: uh stands for the Turkish ı, and ö and ü are as in German.

Saat is a lexical exception to vowel harmony: it takes front-vowel suffixes, so you get saati (its time, the clock), saatte (per hour, as in saatte 100 kilometre) and saattir (for … hours). The vowel harmony page lists more words like this.

Full hours and half hours

• Saat kaç? — What time is it?
• Saat bir. — It’s one o’clock.
• Saat dört buçuk. — It’s half past four.
• Saat on iki. — It’s twelve o’clock.
• Saat yarım. — It’s half past twelve. (Saat on iki buçuk is also correct.)

Minutes past: accusative + geçiyor

For minutes past the hour, the hour takes the accusative case, followed by the minutes and geçiyor:

• Saat üçü on geçiyor. — It’s ten past three.
• Saat üçü çeyrek geçiyor. — It’s quarter past three.
• Saat üçü yirmi geçiyor. — It’s twenty past three.
• Saat üçü yirmi beş geçiyor. — It’s twenty-five past three.

Minutes to: dative + var

For minutes to the hour, the next hour takes the dative case, followed by the minutes and var:

• Saat dörde yirmi var. — It’s twenty to four.
• Saat dörde çeyrek var. — It’s quarter to four.
• Saat dörde on var. — It’s ten to four.
• Saat dörde beş var. — It’s five to four.

The hour table

Learn this table and you can say any time:

Three patterns explain everything in the table:

• Buffer y after a vowel: iki-y-i, altı-y-a. See buffer letters.
• Softening of t to d before a vowel: dört → dördü, dörde. See the consonant mutation rule.
• Hardening of -de to -te after ç, t, ş: üçte, dörtte, beşte.

At what time? Saat kaçta?

To say when something happens, full and half hours take the locative case, geçiyor becomes geçe, and var becomes kala:

Examples:

• Film saat sekizde başlıyor. — The film starts at eight.
• Toplantı dokuzu çeyrek geçe. — The meeting is at quarter past nine.
• Dükkân yediye on kala kapanıyor. — The shop closes at ten to seven.
• Tam altıda buradayım. — I’ll be here at six sharp.
• Beş gibi gelirim. — I’ll come around five.

Morning, evening and the 24-hour clock

In conversation, people use the 12-hour clock with a time of day in front: sabah yedide (at seven in the morning), öğleden sonra üçte (at three in the afternoon), akşam sekizde (at eight in the evening), gece ikide (at two at night). Noon is öğle, often öğlen in speech: Öğlen buluşalım mı? (Shall we meet at noon?)

Timetables, airports, TV listings and official appointments use the 24-hour clock, read as plain numbers:

• Tren 17.45’te kalkıyor. — The train leaves at 17:45. (Read: on yedi kırk beşte.)
• Randevunuz 14.30’da. — Your appointment is at 14:30. (Read: on dört otuzda.)

Turkish usually writes a full stop between hours and minutes (14.30), though a colon is also common. The suffix after the apostrophe matches the last word you say: kırk beş → beşte, otuz → otuzda.

Durations and other time words

Word order matters: Saat kaç? is “What time is it?”, but Kaç saat? is “How many hours?”

• Dokuzdan beşe kadar çalışıyorum. — I work from nine to five.
• Yarım saattir bekliyorum. — I’ve been waiting for half an hour.
• Yol iki buçuk saat sürüyor. — The journey takes two and a half hours.

Useful questions about times

Kaça kadar (until what time) is the dative of kaç plus kadar, and the answer follows the same pattern: Akşam ona kadar açık. (It’s open until ten in the evening.) Gece yarısına kadar çalışıyoruz. (We work until midnight.)

Dialogue: at the bus stop

Turist: Pardon, saat kaç acaba? Excuse me, what time is it, please?

Kadın: Dördü çeyrek geçiyor. It’s quarter past four.

Turist: Teşekkürler. Havalimanı otobüsü saat kaçta kalkıyor, biliyor musunuz? Thanks. Do you know what time the airport bus leaves?

Kadın: Beşe on kala. Daha yarım saatten fazla vaktiniz var. At ten to five. You still have more than half an hour.

Turist: Peki, son otobüs kaçta? And what time is the last bus?

Kadın: Gece on bir buçukta galiba, ama emin değilim. Tabelaya bakın. At half past eleven at night, I think, but I’m not sure. Check the sign.

Common mistakes

• Üçü otuz geçiyor for 3:30. Use üç buçuk.
• Üç yarım. After a number, “half” is buçuk: üç buçuk.
• Mixing the pairs. Geçiyor and var say what time it is now; geçe and kala say when something happens.
• Dörtü, dörte. The t softens: dördü, dörde.
• Üçde, beşde. After ç and ş the locative is -te: üçte, beşte.
• Asking Saat kaç? when you mean “at what time?” Say Saat kaçta?

Mini-quiz

Say in Turkish:

1. It’s 7:15.
2. It’s 8:40.
3. at 6:30
4. at 10:50
5. at 2:05
6. It’s 12:30.
7. two and a half hours

Answers: 1. Saat yediyi çeyrek geçiyor. 2. Saat dokuza yirmi var. 3. Altı buçukta. 4. On bire on kala. 5. İkiyi beş geçe. 6. Saat yarım (or on iki buçuk). 7. İki buçuk saat.

Next steps

Combine times with dates using days of the week and months in Turkish, and drill the numbers you need for minutes with the number converter.