Telling Time and Dates in Turkish

In Brief

Ask Saat kaç? for “What time is it?” and answer Saat üç (“It is three”), Saat üç buçuk (“It is half past three”), or Saat üçü on geçiyor (“It is ten past three”). For “to” the next hour, use var: Saat dörde on var (“It is ten to four”). Turkish dates normally follow the order day–month–year: 5 Mayıs 2026.

Overview

Time and dates are among the most useful A1 topics in Turkish. You need them to arrange a meeting, understand opening hours, buy a ticket, say when an event happens, and talk about birthdays. The essential building blocks are numbers, saat (“clock,” “watch,” or “hour”), the days of the week, and the months.

Turkish offers both a very simple clock-reading style and a traditional “past/to” pattern. At first, you can say Saat yedi (“It is seven”), Saat yedi buçuk (“It is seven thirty”), and digital-style times such as Saat yedi yirmi (“It is 7:20”). As you progress, learn geçiyor (“is passing”) for minutes past and var (“there is/remains”) for minutes to the next hour.

A key difference from English is that Turkish does not normally use a.m. and p.m. in everyday speech. Context or words such as sabah (“morning”), öğleden sonra (“afternoon”), and akşam (“evening”) make the period clear. Turkish also adds suffixes directly to time and date expressions, so “at three” becomes üçte and “in May” becomes mayıs ayında.

How It Works

Asking the time

The standard question is:

• Saat kaç? — What time is it?

Here kaç means “how many/what number?” A clock-hour answer usually begins with saat:

• Saat bir. — It is one o’clock.
• Saat dokuz. — It is nine o’clock.

In relaxed conversation, saat may be omitted when everyone knows that the subject is time: Kaç? — Üç. But learners should use the full forms until the context is clear.

To ask the time of an event, use saat kaçta? (“at what time?”):

• Ders saat kaçta? — What time is the lesson?
• Toplantı saat kaçta başlıyor? — What time does the meeting start?

Notice the difference: Saat kaç? asks for the current time; Saat kaçta? asks when something happens.

Whole hours, halves, and quarters

The beginner patterns are straightforward:

Meaning	Turkish pattern	Example
exact hour	saat + number	Saat altı. — It is six.
half past	saat + hour + buçuk	Saat altı buçuk. — It is 6:30.
quarter past	saat + hour + çeyrek geçiyor	Saat altıyı çeyrek geçiyor. — It is 6:15.
quarter to	saat + next hour + çeyrek var	Saat yediye çeyrek var. — It is 6:45.

Buçuk means “and a half.” Unlike the full geçiyor pattern, the ordinary form altı buçuk does not put an ending on the hour. Çeyrek means “quarter.”

Minutes past: accusative hour + minutes + geçiyor

For a time from one to twenty-nine minutes after the hour, Turkish commonly treats the current hour as the point being passed:

saat + current hour in the accusative case + minutes + geçiyor

The accusative case is an ending that marks the specific thing directly affected by an action. Here it marks the hour being passed. Its forms follow vowel harmony and may require a linking y:

• biri — one
• ikiyi — two
• üçü — three
• dördü — four
• beşi — five
• altıyı — six
• yediyi — seven
• sekizi — eight
• dokuzu — nine
• onu — ten

Examples:

• Saat ikiyi beş geçiyor. — It is five past two.
• Saat dokuzu yirmi geçiyor. — It is twenty past nine.

English places the minutes first in “twenty past nine.” Turkish places the marked hour first: literally, “It is passing nine by twenty.” Do not copy English word order.

Minutes to: dative next hour + minutes + var

After half past, traditional time-telling counts down to the next hour:

saat + next hour in the dative case + minutes + var

The dative case is an ending that commonly expresses movement or orientation “to/toward” something. It uses -a/-e, with a linking y after a vowel:

• bire — to one
• ikiye — to two
• üçe — to three
• dörde — to four
• beşe — to five
• altıya — to six
• yediye — to seven
• sekize — to eight
• dokuza — to nine
• ona — to ten

Examples:

• Saat beşe on var. — It is ten to five (4:50).
• Saat ona beş var. — It is five to ten (9:55).

Always name the hour that is approaching, not the current hour.

Reading digital and official times

Times displayed on a phone, ticket, or timetable can simply be read as hour + minutes:

• 09.20: dokuz yirmi
• 14.30: on dört otuz
• 18.45: on sekiz kırk beş

The 24-hour clock is common in writing, transport schedules, and formal announcements. Everyday conversation often uses a 12-hour reading plus a time-of-day phrase:

• sabah sekiz — eight in the morning
• öğleden sonra iki — two in the afternoon
• akşam yedi — seven in the evening
• gece on bir — eleven at night

Öğlen on iki is noon, and gece yarısı is midnight. Numeric 00.00 may be read sıfır sıfır in formal or technical contexts.

Saying when something happens

To say “at” a clock time, add the locative case, an ending with the forms -da/-de/-ta/-te that locates something in a place or time:

Clock time	At that time
saat iki	saat ikide — at two
saat üç	saat üçte — at three
saat beş buçuk	saat beş buçukta — at five thirty
saat sekizi çeyrek geçiyor	saat sekizi çeyrek geçe — at quarter past eight
saat ona çeyrek var	saat ona çeyrek kala — at quarter to ten

For beginners, exact or digital forms are easiest: Film saat yedi otuzda başlıyor (“The film starts at 7:30”). In the traditional patterns, the verb changes: geçiyor → geçe and var → kala when the expression modifies an event. These forms are explained further under advanced use.

Days of the week

English	Turkish
Monday	pazartesi
Tuesday	salı
Wednesday	çarşamba
Thursday	perşembe
Friday	cuma
Saturday	cumartesi
Sunday	pazar

Use bugün for “today,” yarın for “tomorrow,” and dün for “yesterday.” Turkish often needs no preposition before a weekday:

• Pazartesi çalışıyorum. — I am working on Monday.
• Cuma görüşürüz. — See you on Friday.

For repeated weekly events, add -ları/-leri: cumartesileri means “on Saturdays.” Hafta içi means “on weekdays,” and hafta sonu means “at/on the weekend.”

Months and seasons

English	Turkish	English	Turkish
January	ocak	July	temmuz
February	şubat	August	ağustos
March	mart	September	eylül
April	nisan	October	ekim
May	mayıs	November	kasım
June	haziran	December	aralık

The seasons are ilkbahar (spring), yaz (summer), sonbahar (autumn/fall), and kış (winter). For a general month or season, -da/-de is common with seasons, while months often use ayında (“in the month of”):

• Yazın hava sıcak. — The weather is hot in summer.
• Mayıs ayında İstanbul'a gidiyoruz. — We are going to Istanbul in May.

Dates

The normal order is day + month + year:

• 5 Mayıs 2026 — 5 May 2026
• 29 Ekim 1923 — 29 October 1923

Ask Bugün ayın kaçı? (“What date is it today?”), literally “Today is which [day] of the month?” A natural answer is Bugün 5 Mayıs. Dates are normally read with cardinal numbers—the ordinary counting numbers—not with a special word equivalent to English “fifth”: beş Mayıs.

To say that an event occurs on a particular date, add a time-locating suffix:

• Sınav 12 Haziran'da. — The exam is on 12 June.
• 2027'de mezun olacağım. — I will graduate in 2027.

In numeric writing, Turkish commonly uses dots: 05.05.2026. A slash may also appear in forms and digital interfaces.

Examples in Context

Turkish	English	Note
Saat kaç? Saat üç.	What time is it? It is three o’clock.	Basic question and exact hour
Saat beş buçuk.	It is half past five.	buçuk follows the hour
Saat biri on geçiyor.	It is ten past one.	Current hour takes the accusative ending
Saat dörde yirmi var.	It is twenty to four.	This means 3:40; use the next hour
Tren saat dokuz on beşte kalkıyor.	The train leaves at 9:15.	Digital-style time with -te
Ders saat kaçta başlıyor?	What time does the lesson start?	kaçta asks “at what time?”
Sabah yedide kahvaltı yapıyorum.	I have breakfast at seven in the morning.	Time of day makes a.m. clear
Akşam sekizde buluşalım.	Let’s meet at eight in the evening.	Everyday appointment
Bugün çarşamba, yarın perşembe.	Today is Wednesday; tomorrow is Thursday.	Weekday vocabulary
Cumartesileri Türkçe çalışıyorum.	I study Turkish on Saturdays.	Repeated day
Doğum günüm 18 Ağustos.	My birthday is 18 August.	Day–month order
Toplantı 3 Mart'ta.	The meeting is on 3 March.	A suffix attaches to the date
Kışın günler kısa.	The days are short in winter.	General seasonal expression
Pazartesiden cumaya kadar çalışıyoruz.	We work from Monday to Friday.	-den ... kadar means “from ... to”

Common Mistakes

Using the current hour with var

• Wrong: Saat üçe on var. (intended: 3:50)
• Right: Saat dörde on var.
• Why: At 3:50, ten minutes remain to four, so Turkish names the approaching hour.

Leaving the hour bare before geçiyor

• Wrong: Saat üç on geçiyor. (in the traditional “past” pattern)
• Right: Saat üçü on geçiyor.
• Why: The current hour takes the accusative ending before geçiyor. Bare üç on is possible as a digital reading, but do not mix the two constructions.

Translating “half past” word for word

• Wrong: Saat beş geçmiş buçuk.
• Right: Saat beş buçuk.
• Why: Turkish simply places buçuk after the hour.

Confusing kaç and kaçta

• Wrong: Toplantı saat kaç?
• Right: Toplantı saat kaçta?
• Why: Saat kaç? asks what the time is now. The ending in kaçta asks at what time an event occurs.

Copying month–day order from American English

• Wrong: Mayıs 5 as the normal date order
• Right: 5 Mayıs
• Why: Turkish places the day before the month. This is also reflected in numeric dates such as 05.05.2026.

Adding an English-style preposition before every day

• Wrong: on pazartesi or pazarteside
• Right: Pazartesi görüşürüz.
• Why: A weekday can function as a time expression without a word equivalent to English “on.”

Usage Notes

Turkish speakers freely switch between traditional and digital readings. Saat altıyı yirmi geçiyor and saat altı yirmi can both refer to 6:20. The digital form is especially natural when reading a displayed time; the geçiyor/var forms remain common in conversation.

In running Turkish text, weekday and month names are generally lowercase when used in a general sense: pazartesi, mayıs. They are capitalized when they form part of a specific dated event, as in 29 Ekim 1923. Capitalized month names in specific dates can take suffixes after an apostrophe: 29 Ekim'de. Style can vary in informal messages, but this is the useful standard-writing distinction.

Turkish usually relies on context rather than saying “a.m.” or “p.m.” The abbreviations ÖÖ (öğleden önce, before noon) and ÖS (öğleden sonra, after noon) exist, but the 24-hour clock or words such as sabah and akşam are often clearer.

Be careful with saat as a duration. Saat üç means “three o’clock,” but üç saat means “three hours.” Word order separates a clock time from a length of time:

• Saat üçte geldim. — I arrived at three.
• Üç saat çalıştım. — I studied for three hours.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following forms at A1, but you will hear them whenever people make appointments using the traditional clock patterns.

When a geçiyor time becomes “at that time,” Turkish uses geçe:

• Saat üçü on geçiyor. — It is 3:10.
• Saat üçü on geçe buluşalım. — Let’s meet at 3:10.

When a var time becomes “at that time,” Turkish uses kala:

• Saat dörde on var. — It is 3:50.
• Saat dörde on kala evden çıktım. — I left home at 3:50 / ten minutes before four.

These are converbs—special verb forms that connect an action to the main verb and can mean something like “as/when.” For now, learn geçe and kala as complete time patterns rather than trying to build them from scratch.

Turkish can also express approximate time:

• saat üç gibi — around three
• üçe doğru — toward three / close to three
• üç civarında — at around three
• üçten sonra — after three
• üçten önce — before three

For ranges, use -den/-dan ... -e/-a kadar (“from ... until”): Saat dokuzdan beşe kadar çalışıyorum (“I work from nine to five”). The suffixes change according to Turkish vowel harmony and consonant rules.

Years are read as full numbers: 2026 is iki bin yirmi altı. Historical dates may include yılında (“in the year”): Cumhuriyet 1923 yılında ilan edildi (“The Republic was proclaimed in 1923”). In formal schedules, 14.00'te means “at 14:00”; the spoken suffix follows how the final element is pronounced.

Practice Tips

1. Build a clock drill. Choose random times and say each in two ways: digital style (yedi yirmi) and, where appropriate, with geçiyor or var (yediyi yirmi geçiyor). Pay special attention to naming the next hour with var.
2. Plan a real week in Turkish. Write one activity for three weekdays and include a time: Salı saat altıda spor yapıyorum. Then add one repeated activity using -ları/-leri.
3. Read dates aloud. Use birthdays, appointments, and public holidays. Say them in day–month–year order, then turn them into sentences with -da/-de: Konser 12 Haziran'da.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Numbers — you need Turkish counting numbers to read hours, minutes, dates, and years.