# Telling the time in Polish



## LilianaB

Hi. A question in another thread has inspired my question. I was really surprised that such forms of telling the time as 13:50 _pięćdziesiąt po trzynastej_ or 15:40 _czterdziesci po piętnastej_ are acceptable these days. Is it really true? Can you say: _Jest czterdziesci po piętnastej_. It is something totally new to me, if this is really true.


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## Thomas1

Hi Liliana,
this is new to me too.

I'd say:
13:50 -- trzynasta/pierwsza pięćdziesiąt; za dziesięć druga (I think you may also hear _za dziesięć czternasta_ on some rare occasions)
15:40 -- piętnasta/trzecia czterdzieści; za dwadzieścia czwarta (za dwadzieścia szesnasta, the same as the above)


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## LilianaB

Thank you. This is what I thought.


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## R.O

I've heard people speak like that but to me it sounds odd.


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## dreamlike

I think there's no way of telling whether it is acceptable or not. There's nothing wrong with it in grammatical terms. It's just that it sounds odd. I don't think we normally use the '.... po ....." pattern for numbers greater than '29'.

_Dwadzieścia dziewięć po czternastej_ would sound entirely natural to me, which can't be said for_ 'trzydzieści po..._' (for that I'd use 'w pół do') and higher.


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## tengounaduda

Thomas1 said:


> Hi Liliana,
> this is new to me too.
> 
> I'd say:
> 13:50 -- trzynasta/pierwsza pięćdziesiąt; za dziesięć druga (I think you may also hear _za dziesięć czternasta_ on some rare occasions)
> 15:40 -- piętnasta/trzecia czterdzieści; za dwadzieścia czwarta (za dwadzieścia szesnasta, the same as the above)



Hola, both above mentioned examples are OK. Actually, you may hear them very frequently in conversations, on TV or radio. It sounds OK, except one point. I believe it isn´t used for a range of time between a full hour and an hour and half (12:01 - 12:30). You mau say: 
za dziesięć druga - for 13:50
za dwadzieścia czwarta - for 15:40
za dwadzieścia pięć czwarta - for 15:35

even, but not very likely, as this really sounds strange... za dwadzieścia siedem/osiem/dziewięć czwarta 15:33/15:32/15:31

for anything around half past... you will rather say: dwie/trzy/cztery po wpół do czwartej - 15:32/15:33/15:34


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## R.O

When it comes to telling the time, regardless in which language, I always round the "irregular" ones off to 15:05, 15:10, 15:15, 15:20 and so on and so forth; unless, of course, it's essential to provide the time exactly as it is.


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## dreamlike

It would seem that there are no rigid rules governing telling the time in Polish, and we go about that all we like 



tengounaduda said:


> for anything around half past... you will rather say: dwie/trzy/cztery po wpół do czwartej - 15:32/15:33/15:34



I can't really imagine myself saying that, it sounds very media-like. I'd simply say_ Piętnasta trzydzieści dwa _and so on.


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## LilianaB

I agree with most of the methods of telling time in Polish -- I just think _forty six after sixteen_-- _czterdziesci sześć minut po_ _szesnastej_ sounds a little weird. It was definitely not the atandard before (some years ago) and nobody spoke like that. I was just wondering if it was something new, or plain wrong -- this particular construction (including _po_ and a number bigger than 29).


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## dreamlike

Hi, Liliana

I don't think there exists a rule that says it's incorrect to say that. The construction is readily understandable and grammatically correct, it's just that it sounds a tiny bit weird -- but that alone does not render it incorrect, I think.


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## Thomas1

LilianaB said:


> I agree with most of the methods of telling time in Polish -- I just think _forty six after sixteen_-- _czterdziesci sześć minut po_ _szesnastej_ sounds a little weird. It was definitely not the atandard before (some years ago) and nobody spoke like that. I was just wondering if it was something new, or plain wrong -- this particular construction (including _po_ and a number bigger than 29).


Technically it might not be wrong, but I think this way of telling the time isn't standard Polish.


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