In this article, you’ll learn how to ask for and tell the time in Turkish. Turkish follows rules similar to English and many other languages when it comes to expressing time. After learning the numbers, here’s a detailed guide to telling time in Turkish. Iyi okumalar!
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Asking and telling the time in Turkish
In Turkish, to ask “what time is it?”, you say: “Saat kaç?”. There are different ways of giving the time in Turkish, regarding if it you are talking about full hours, half hours or something in between. Here is a recap:
Tam Saatler (Full Hours)
- 09:00 – Saat dokuz (It’s nine o’clock)
- 11:00 – Saat on bir (It’s eleven o’clock)
- 06:00 – Saat altı (It’s six o’clock)
Buçuk (Half Hours)
- 09:30 – Saat dokuz buçuk (It’s half past nine)
- 07:30 – Saat yedi buçuk (It’s half past seven)
- 22:00 – Saat on buçuk (It’s half past ten)
Saat + (y)I + minutes + geçiyor
When telling the time using “geçiyor” (past), the hour takes a specific suffix, which is the accusative case suffix in Turkish. This is because we’re talking about how many minutes have passed since a certain hour.
- 09:15 – Saat dokuzu çeyrek geçiyor (It’s quarter past nine)
- 06:05 – Saat altıyı beş geçiyor (It’s five past six)
- 16:10 – Saat dördü on geçiyor (It’s ten past four)
Saat + (y)A + minutes + var
“Var” is used in Turkish to tell the time when we’re talking about how many minutes are left before the next hour, it takes the dative case. It’s similar to saying “to” in English when telling time, like “10 to 3.”
- 9:45 – Saat ona çeyrek var(It’s a quarter to ten)
- 15:50 – Saat dörde on var(It’s ten minutes to four)
- 05:40 – Saat altıya yirmi var(It’s twenty minutes to six)
Order that çay in Turkish
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Asking at What Time Something Happens (Saat Kaçta?)
“Saat kaç?” is used only to ask for the current time. “Saat kaçta?” is used to ask “at what time?” something happens. To answer, you also add the locative suffix (-da, -de, -ta, -te) to the time. For example:
- Saat kaçta yemek yiyorsun? — At what time do you eat?
- Saat üçte yemek yiyorum. — I eat at 3 o’clock.
Here are different ways of answering “At what time” (Saat kaçta?) in Turkish:
Tam Saatler (Full Hours)
- 09:00 – Saat dokuzda uyanıyorum. (I wake up at 9 o’clock.)
- 10:00 – Saat onda duş alıyorum. (I take a shower at 10 o’clock.)
- 14:00 – Saat ikide köpeğimi yürüyüşe çıkarıyorum. (I take my dog for a walk at 2 o’clock.)
Buçuk (HaldfHours)
- 09:30 – Saat dokuz buçukta meditasyon yapıyorum. (I meditate at 9:30.)
- 17:30 – Saat beş buçukta Türk kahvesi içiyorum. (I drink Turkish coffee at 17:30.)
- 19:30 – Saat yedi buçukta tenis oynuyorum. (I play tennis at 19:30.)
Saat + (y)I + minutes + Geçe
- 16:15 – Saat dördü çeyrek geçe annemi arıyorum. (I call my mother at 16:15.)
- 20:10 – Saat sekizi on geçe ilaç içiyorum. (I take my medicine at 20:10.)
- 21:20 – Saat dokuzu yirmi geçe e-maillerimi kontrol ediyorum. (I check my emails at 21:20.)
Saat + (y)A + minutes + Kala
- 21:45 – Saat ona çeyrek kala makyajımı çıkarıyorum. (I remove my makeup at 21:45.)
- 22:50 – Saat on bire on kala pijamamı giyiyorum. (I put on my pajamas at 22:50.)
- 23:40 – Saat on ikiye yirmi kala biraz kitap okuyorum. (I read a book at 23:40.)
“Ten minutes to four” clock image is wrong. Important for younger students who may be confused. Note that I find the clock images crucial especially for students under 20 or so (maybe more). Students in later generations tend to resist concepts of time that derive from visuals of an analog clock — they are more used to digital. “A quarter before” or “a quarter after” the hour is commonly used across languages, but I think the idea of a quarter hour is very visual, and their reliance on digital clocks makes it more difficult for them to embrace this. For example, they prefer saying “15 after” to saying “a quarter after”. Some resist saying X before the hour at all (for example, “ikiye on var”), because this requires subtraction. My daughter starts with 1:50 in her brain and subtracts 50 from 60 to get 10. It’s no longer just visual — it’s a calculation — which is easy but not as automatic. All this to say how terribly useful the clock images are, and even more of them would be great! Also thanks loads for your blog!!! I find it extremely useful for my own Turkish language furtherance, and as a tool to help teach my half-Turkish daughter. (I’m a quasi-retired Economics professor, who spent a year as a Fulbright in Ankara in 2008-09, and now in business with my husband running a Turkish restaurant in southern California, so I’m giving you that website. 😉 ) Kolay gelsin!