Asking the time

The question to ask the time is:
Saat kaç? (What time is it?)

The question word ‘kaç’ is used to ask the number of things or people:

kaç kişi? how many people?
kaç dakika? how many minutes?
kaç saniye? how many seconds?
kaç gün? how many days?

When the question word ‘kaç’ precedes the word ‘saat’ as in ‘kaç saat?’ it means how many as in the above examples and the word ‘saat’ means hour:

kaç saat? how many hours?

When asking the time of an action, the question is ‘saat kaçta’ (ie, ‘ta’ is the locative case ending ‘-da’):

Saat kaçta kalkıyorsun? (What time do you get up?)
Uçağın saat kaçta? (What time is your flight?)
Dün gece saat kaçta yattın? (What time did you go to bed last night?)

The word ‘saat’ may drop:

Dün gece kaçta yattın.

For possible answers to the question ‘saat kaçta’ see (F) below.

Telling the time

A We only say the number at the full hour. The word ‘saat’ may drop:

Saat sekiz. It's eight o'clock.
On bir. It’s eleven o’clock.

B We use ‘geçiyor’ (the present continuous tense form of the verb ‘geçmek’) to say times after the hour until half past. The word denoting the hour gets the accusative case ending ‘-i (-ı, -ü, -u)’, and precedes the word denoting the minute:

Saat biri beş geçiyor. It’s five past one.
Saat onu yirmi geçiyor. It’s twenty past ten.
Üçü çeyrek geçiyor. It’s quarter past three. (ie, ‘çeyrek’ means quarter.)

C We use ‘buçuk’ to say the time, when it is 30 minutes past the hour:

Saat on buçuk. It’s half past ten.
Dokuz buçuk. It’s half past nine.

D We use ‘var’ to say times before the hour from 31 minutes until the full hour. The word denoting the hour get the dative case ending ‘-e / -a’, and precedes the word denoting the minute:

Saat beşe yirmi var. It’s twenty to five.
Saat sekize on var. It’s ten to eight.
İkiye çeyrek var. It’s quarter to two.

E We can also just say the numbers in groups of two, when telling the time. It is especially said in groups of two on time tables of trains, flights etc:

Saat yedi yirmi beş. It's seven twenty-five.
Dört on. It’s four ten.
Beş on beş. It’s five fifteen.
Saat on kırk It’s ten forty.
Bir otuz. It’s one thirty.
On sekiz yirmi. It’s eighteen twenty.
Yirmi üç otuz. It’s twenty-three thirty.

F When answering the question ‘saat kaçta’:
1. We add the suffix ‘-de / -da (-te / -ta)’, if it is a full hour, or 30 minutes past the hour:

Dün gece saat kaçta yattın? (What time did you go to bed last night?)
on birde (at eleven o’clock)

Uçağın saat kaçta? (What time is your flight?)
on buçukta (at half past ten)

2. If it is not a full hour, or 30 minutes past we add the suffix ‘-e / -a’ to the words ‘geç’ (the root of the verb ‘geçmek’) and to ‘kal’ (the root of the verb ‘kalmak’):

Uçağın saat kaçta?
onu yirmi geçe (It’s at twenty past ten.)
or ona yirmi kala (It’s at twenty to ten.)

Note that when we just say the numbers in groups of two, when telling the time, the suffix ‘-de / -da (-te / -ta)’ is added, but not the suffix ‘-e / -a’:

Uçağın saat kaçta?
on yirmide (It’s at ten twenty.)
or on kırkta (It’s at ten forty.)

G When speaking about the different times of the day we often use: sabah (in the morning), öğleden sonra (in the afternoon), akşam (in the evening). They precede the word ‘saat’ (if it is used in answer). The above rules stated in (F) are the same as for telling the hour and minute:

Uçağın saat kaçta?
Sabah saat onda. (It’s at ten o’clock in the morning.)
or Öğleden sonra beş otuzda. (It’s at five thirty in the afternoon.)
or Yarın akşam dokuzu yirmi geçe. (It’s at twenty past nine tomorrow evening.)

Just a small addition, to this very comprehensive note.

In the UK and the US we dont use the 24 hour clock as much as the Turks do.

In "official" notices, and also for timetables, cinema and theatre or concert times, TV program listings, even on the evening news we normally see the 24 hour clock used in Turkey. So

Film saat kaçta?

Saat on dokuzda is more usual an answer than saat yedide or akşam saat yedide.

Thanks qdemir. It's very useful I think you should put this topic to your lessons. It's often when somebady explained here something and then new memberships won't know it.

Greetings

Getting used to telling the time is very important - but also difficult, especially because of the noun states that the 'hour' component takes......

For a long while I added the time to the bottom of all my posts just to practice and that helped alot. Although now I am again out of practice Perhaps I will start adding the time to posts again - please, please, please correct me if I get them wrong!

Şimdi saat on ikiyi on beş geçiyor