# telling the time



## CarlosMC95

Hi!
How can I tell the time in Czech?


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## Enquiring Mind

It's a bit complicated Carlos, but this site is a good introduction (and you can hear it too).
http://old.radio.cz/en/html/living_cas.html 

Complications?  Půl sedmé sounds to English ears as if it ought to mean half-seven, which means half past seven in English, but it's half past six in Czech (half of the seventh hour).

Čtvrt na tři, which sounds as if it ought to mean a quarter to three (2.45), is actually a quarter past two (2.15) - a quarter of the third hour.

It gets more complicated too: "za pět minut tři čtvrtě na jedenáct" - twenty to eleven.

Fortunately public announcers in railway stations and so forth use the hours/minutes 24-hour clock - osmnáct hodin dvacet čtyři minuty (18:24). 
Good luck!


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## bibax

The construction _půl sedmé_ is universal:

- Kolik jsme ujeli mil?
- Půl sedmé. = Šest a půl.

- Za kolik jsi koupil toho šimla?
- Za půl páta tolaru. = Za čtyři a půl tolaru.

It literally means: half of the seventh (mile), half of the fifth dollar.


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## CarlosMC95

Enquiring Mind said:


> Fortunately public announcers in railway stations and so forth use the hours/minutes 24-hour clock - osmnáct hodin dvacet čtyři minuty (18:24).


Which form is more used: this one or the one I was asking you for?
Thank you two, guys!!


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## werrr

CarlosMC95 said:


> Which form is more used: this one or the one I was asking you for?


The hours/minutes format is used when telling exact time while the descriptive way could be used for approximate time.


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