Hausa tells clock time by putting ƙarfe before the hour: ƙarfe uku “three o’clock.” The same noun ordinarily means “metal,” but in this conventional frame it identifies the striking of an hour. English speakers therefore need to learn the whole frame, not translate o’clock or place the hour first.
The everyday system is normally a twelve-hour one. Minutes after an hour use da “and,” while time counted back from the next hour uses saura “remaining” or a construction with ba “lacking.” Unless a label says otherwise, the forms below are neutral Nigerian Standard Hausa in both (informal) conversation and ordinary (formal) announcements.
For the question frames that prompt these expressions, see Asking and Answering the Time.
Full hours: ƙarfe plus a cardinal
The hour follows ƙarfe directly. It is a cardinal number, not an ordinal: Hausa says, in effect, “clock-hour three,” not “the third hour.”
| Clock | Hausa | Clock | Hausa |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:00 | ƙarfe ɗaya | 7:00 | ƙarfe bakwai |
| 2:00 | ƙarfe biyu | 8:00 | ƙarfe takwas |
| 3:00 | ƙarfe uku | 9:00 | ƙarfe tara |
| 4:00 | ƙarfe huɗu | 10:00 | ƙarfe goma |
| 5:00 | ƙarfe biyar | 11:00 | ƙarfe sha ɗaya |
| 6:00 | ƙarfe shida | 12:00 | ƙarfe goma sha biyu |
Yanzu ƙarfe uku ne daidai.
It is exactly three o’clock now.
Motar za ta tashi da ƙarfe shida.
The vehicle will leave at six o’clock.
Mun shirya taronmu na ƙarfe tara a babban ɗakin taro.
We scheduled our nine-o’clock meeting in the main hall.
Notice the two different jobs of da in the second example and later time expressions. Before the complete clock phrase, da ƙarfe shida means “at six.” Inside a clock phrase, ƙarfe shida da minti goma means “six and ten minutes.” Position makes the interpretation clear.
Minutes after the hour
For an exact time during the first part of the hour, use:
ƙarfe + hour + da minti + number
Ƙarfe biyu da minti biyar ne.
It is 2:05.
Jirgin ya isa da ƙarfe bakwai da minti ashirin.
The train arrived at 7:20.
Za a buɗe ƙofofin da ƙarfe goma sha ɗaya da minti goma.
The doors will be opened at 11:10.
Minti identifies the unit, and the numeral counts those minutes. English puts the minute number before past in “twenty past seven”; Hausa coordinates the hour with a measured quantity: bakwai da minti ashirin, literally “seven and twenty minutes.” Do not omit minti merely because a digital display makes the unit obvious.
Digit-by-digit reading belongs to telephone numbers and codes, not to ordinary spoken clock time. A display such as 10:20 is naturally expanded as ƙarfe goma da minti ashirin, not read as a string of four separate digits.
Half past and quarter past
Two conventional fractions replace a minute count:
- da rabi — and a half, “half past”
- da kwata — and a quarter, “quarter past”
Mun fara cin abinci da ƙarfe ɗaya da rabi.
We started eating at half past one.
Aisha za ta kira ka da ƙarfe huɗu da kwata.
Aisha will call you at quarter past four.
Na duba agogona; ƙarfe goma da rabi na dare ne.
I checked my watch; it was half past ten at night.
The order differs from English. Hausa anchors the expression at the hour and adds the fraction: huɗu da kwata “four and a quarter.” The forms rabi and kwata do not agree with the hour number. They are measured fractions within the clock-time frame.
Counting back to the next hour
After the half hour, speakers can name the approaching hour and say how much remains:
ƙarfe + next hour + saura + amount
Ƙarfe shida saura minti goma ne.
It is ten minutes to six (5:50).
Mun isa da ƙarfe tara saura minti biyar.
We arrived at five minutes to nine (8:55).
Yanzu ƙarfe goma sha biyu saura kwata.
It is now quarter to twelve (11:45).
The named hour is the hour being approached. That is the difficult part for English speakers: ƙarfe shida saura minti goma contains shida “six,” so it cannot mean 6:50. It means that ten minutes remain before six.
The alternative ƙarfe shida ba minti goma and the fixed ƙarfe shida ba kwata are also established: the next hour is “without” ten minutes or a quarter. Saura is especially transparent for learners and productive in present-day speech; both patterns occur in careful descriptions of time.
An sanar cewa taron zai fara ƙarfe biyar ba kwata.
It was announced that the meeting would begin at quarter to five.
There is no perfectly mechanical boundary forcing a speaker to switch at 30 minutes. One can still say ƙarfe biyar da minti arba’in “5:40,” especially when reading a schedule exactly. The subtractive form ƙarfe shida saura minti ashirin presents the same time from the approaching hour.
Marking the part of the day
A twelve-hour time may be ambiguous. Add a na phrase to identify the day period. These divisions follow ordinary Hausa ways of organizing the day and do not map perfectly onto English AM and PM.
| Expression | Practical meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| na safe | in the morning | ƙarfe bakwai na safe |
| na rana | in the daytime/afternoon | ƙarfe biyu na rana |
| na yamma | in the late afternoon/evening | ƙarfe shida na yamma |
| na dare | at night | ƙarfe goma na dare |
Shagon yana buɗewa da ƙarfe takwas na safe.
The shop opens at eight in the morning.
Za mu haɗu da ƙarfe biyu da rabi na rana.
We will meet at 2:30 in the afternoon.
An ɗaga wasan zuwa ƙarfe bakwai da kwata na yamma.
The match was moved to 7:15 in the evening.
Tsakar rana is noon and tsakar dare is midnight. Those lexical expressions are clearer than relying on an English-style 12 a.m./12 p.m. distinction.
Ofishin zai rufe da tsakar rana.
The office will close at noon.
Mun dawo gida kusa da tsakar dare.
We returned home close to midnight.
In (formal/technical) timetables, digital 24-hour notation such as 18:30 is common and unambiguous. In speech, however, a natural expansion is often ƙarfe shida da rabi na yamma, not a word-for-word reading of “eighteen thirty.”
A practical exchange
A: Nawa ne kuɗin tikitin? B: Naira dubu biyu ne. A: Motar za ta tashi yaushe? B: Gobe da ƙarfe bakwai saura kwata na safe.
A: How much is the ticket? B: It is two thousand naira. A: When will the vehicle leave? B: Tomorrow at quarter to seven in the morning.
This exchange keeps the roles separate: dubu biyu counts naira, while ƙarfe bakwai saura kwata measures a position on the clock. A numeral does not have one context-free reading independent of its measurement frame.
Practice
Read each display as a normal spoken clock time.
8:00 — ƙarfe takwas
8:00 — eight o’clock
3:15 — ƙarfe uku da kwata
3:15 — quarter past three
9:30 — ƙarfe tara da rabi
9:30 — half past nine
4:50 — ƙarfe biyar saura minti goma
4:50 — ten minutes to five
Common Mistakes
1. Copying English word order
❌ Minti goma da ƙarfe shida.
Incorrect — ordinary clock time starts with the hour frame.
✅ Ƙarfe shida da minti goma.
It is 6:10.
2. Anchoring saura at the hour already passed
❌ Ƙarfe biyar saura minti goma.
Incorrect if you mean 5:50 — this expression points toward five and therefore means 4:50.
✅ Ƙarfe shida saura minti goma.
It is 5:50, ten minutes to six.
3. Treating a clock display like a digit string
❌ ɗaya sifili biyu sifili
Incorrect as an ordinary reading of 10:20 — this reads a string of separate digits.
✅ ƙarfe goma da minti ashirin
10:20 in ordinary spoken clock time.
4. Calquing AM and PM without a Hausa day period
❌ ƙarfe bakwai PM
Avoid this mixed spoken form in ordinary Hausa.
✅ ƙarfe bakwai na yamma
Seven in the evening.
Key Takeaways
- Full hours use ƙarfe + cardinal number.
- Minutes and fractions after the hour use da: da minti goma, da rabi, da kwata.
- Time before an hour names the approaching hour and uses saura or ba.
- Da ƙarfe … explicitly means “at … o’clock”; bare clock phrases can also function adverbially.
- Add na safe/rana/yamma/dare when the twelve-hour expression needs a day-period label.
Related Topics
- Asking and Answering the TimeA2 — Ask what time it is or when an event occurs, then give exact, approximate, and confirmatory answers naturally.
- Cardinal Numbers Zero to TenA1 — Count from sifili to goma and place Hausa cardinal numbers naturally after nouns in quantities, prices, times, and digit strings.
- Building Complex Cardinal NumbersA1 — Assemble Hausa cardinal numbers from the largest place downward, using sha for 11–19 and da between additive sections.
- Fractions and HalvesA2 — Express halves, quarters, general fractions, mixed measurements, and parts of known wholes with rabi and kashi.
- Time Adverbs and Clause PositionA2 — Place Hausa time words and phrases where they can anchor, schedule, or contrast an event without changing its aspect.
- Time Relations with kafin and bayanB1 — Order people, times, and events with kafin ‘before’ and bayan ‘after’ while keeping pronoun complements distinct from clause subjects.