Grammar: Times and Dates

Russian Time Expressions

Time expressions in Russian are crucial to discuss past, present or future events.
The word for hour is час. However, when you want to say “one o’clock,” you say час; “two, three or four o’clock,” you say часа; and for five or more, you say часов.
When telling the time, use the verb быть (to be).
Minutes are ultra-important in telling the time. The word used is минута. The same rule applies here as for the word hour, its form changes depending on the quantity: одна минута, две, три, четыре минуты and for five or more - минут.

When expressing days of the week, remember they all are masculine nouns.
Monday is понедельник; Tuesday is вторник; Wednesday is среда; Thursday is четверг; Friday is пятница; Saturday is суббота; and Sunday is воскресенье.

There are 12 months in a year, and those also have their words in Russian, the same way they do in English. All names of months in Russian are masculine.
Starting from January, they are: январь, февраль, март, апрель, май, июнь, июль, август, сентябрь, октябрь, ноябрь, декабрь.
The words for the four seasons are: spring (весна), summer (лето), autumn (осень), winter (зима).

Russian dates follow the date-month pattern: number + month in genitive case.
The first day of the month has a different format, первое instead of один.
To say “on the x-th of the month,” use the ordinal number in masculine, neuter or plural form to refer to the date (depending on the date) and the genitive form of the month.
For example: первое июля (1st of July), второго мая (2nd of May), пятнадцатого ноября (15th of November).

Practise writing out the different expressions for times, dates and days of the week.
Make sure to use each different format in a sentence, to understand how it is used in context.
Repeat the names of months and days of the week, to remember the correct order and spelling.