Lesson 60 of 74 · A1, Unit 6: Time and everyday things
Telling the time
Hungarian clock time has one genuinely tricky rule: the half and quarter hours are counted toward the coming hour, not the one just passed. fél kettő doesn't mean 'half past two' — it means 'half of the way to two', i.e. 1:30.
The same logic extends to quarters: negyed kettő ('a quarter of the way to two') is 1:15, and háromnegyed kettő ('three-quarters of the way to two') is 1:45. Only egy óra, két óra, and so on for the exact hour work the way you'd expect.
By the end you can:
- tell the time using óra for full hours
- use negyed, fél, and háromnegyed for quarter-hours the Hungarian way — always counting toward the next hour
- ask and answer 'what time is it?'
Unlock the full lesson
The full lesson — 5 sections of explanation, its 16 words with audio, a dialogue, flashcards, a quiz and spaced review. The first three lessons are free. A subscription unlocks every lesson.
See plans