Hungarian Reference, a guide to Hungarian grammar

A reference guide to Hungarian grammar, designed with English-speakers in mind

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Telling the time in Hungarian

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Time in Hungarian is quite complicated and it's easy to be one hour off. The biggest difference is that when using such expression as "quarter (past)", "half (past)", etc, they always look forward to the coming hour, never back at the hour just passed.

This means that 5:15, which we would describe as "quarter past five", they would describe as negyed hat (óra): "six quarter", "a quarter into the sixth hour" or maybe even "a quarter past in the sixth hour".

Similarly: 9:30 is fél tíz half into the tenth hour
10:45 is háromnegyed tizenegy three quarters into the eleventh hour

Hours and minutes

It's acceptable to simply say "nine (hours) twenty-three (minutes)
9:23 kilenc óra huszonhárom perc

3:50 tíz perc múlva lesz negy óra. ten miutes having passed (it) will be four o'clock

3:50 négy óra lesz tíz perc múlva (it will be) four o'clock, ten miutes having passed

7:58 két perc múlva nyolc (óra) two minutes having passed (will be) eight (o'clock)

Minutes passed - múlt

Here we say "x passed with y minutes" e.g. két óra múlt öt perccel: 2:05 two hours passed with five minutes

Minutes to - mulva

This is expessed with a rather difficult concept of mulva, which may be translated as "having passed" (mulik to pass, see [present participle]). This is put into the context of "x minutes having passed, it will be y"

Quarter hours

Times may be express as minutes to or passed the quarter hour háromnegyed tizenegy múlt öt perccel: 10:50 three quarters into the eleventh hour passed with five minutes; five minutes passed ten-fourty-five

Word list

óra hour, clock, o'clock

perc minute

perccel with minutes (here meaning "expressed in minutes")

negyed quarter

háromnegyed three quarters

fél half

múlt past, last

[mulva] having passed

lesz will be

idő time

dél noon

éjfél midnight

AM and PM

AM and PM are not known in Hungarian. Either the 24-hour clock is used, or the time is qualified with reggel morning or este evening

17:30 fél tizennyolc half into the eighteenth hour

17:30 fél hat este half into the sixth hour in the evening

International times

időzona timezone

Amikor Budapesten reggel 8 óra van, akkor Londonban még csak 7 óra van. When in Budapest it's 8 in the morning, then in London it's still just 7.

Amikor New Yorkban reggel 7 akkor Szófiában már 14:00 van. When in New York it's 7 in the morning, then in Sofia it's already 14:00.

At certian times - -kor

See the temporal noun case (kor)

Relative times

Relative times do not convey any absolute information about the occurence of an event, just relative to another event (often relative to "now").

aztán = azután then, following that, after that
hamar soon
majd shortly, at some time in the future
majdnem immediately
tavaly last year
jövő héten next week
jövő = jövő évben next year (lit: in the coming year)
múlt ... last ...

See the section on present participles for info about word like "coming" and "following".

Some examples and exercises

Here are some examples. Cover up the right two columns with your hand and try to work out the times. The right most column is a literal explanation. (Hungarian text borrowed from [magyarora.com], explanations added by DC.)

két óra múlt öt perccel 2:05 two hours passed with five minutes

negyed négy lesz 10 perc múlva 3:05 quarter into the fourth hour will be 10 minutes having passed

fél tíz 9:30 half into in the tenth hour

háromnegyed hat múlt öt perccel 5:50 three quarters into the sixth hour passed with five minutes

két perc múlva nyolc 7:58 two minutes having passed will be 8 o'clock

öt óra negyven perc 5:40 five o'clock forty minutes

fél három múlt 8 perccel 2:38 half into the third hour passed with eight minutes

háromnegyed kilenc lesz hét perc múlva 8:38 three quarters passed in the ninth hour will be seven minutes having passed

negyed egy 12:15 quarter passed in the first hour

dél 12:00 nappal noon

fél hét lesz három perc múlva 6:27 half into the seventh hour it will be, three minutes having passed

öt perc múlva kilenc 8:55 five minutes having passed it will be eight