Asking and Telling Time
To ask for the time in Danish, you literally ask "What is the clock?". To state the time on the hour, you simply say klokken er followed by the number. You can also add præcis to mean "exactly".
Half-Hours: The Danish System
The Danish way of expressing half-hours is unique and very important to master. When a Dane uses halv (half), they are referring to the upcoming hour, meaning "halfway to...".
Therefore, halv fire (literally "half four") does not mean 4:30. It means half past three (3:30). You are always looking ahead to the next hour.
Quarters: Kvart i and Kvart over
For quarter hours, Danish uses the prepositions i (to) and over (past) combined with kvart (quarter).
- kvart i means "a quarter to".
- kvart over means "a quarter past".
Unlike the half-hours, these relate to the nearest hour just like in English.
You can easily combine these phrases to express a schedule, like working from half past eight (8:30 = halv ni) to a quarter to ten (9:45 = kvart i ti).
Durations: Whole Hours and Minutes
When talking about lengths of time rather than points on a clock, you will use words like en hel time (a whole hour) or et minut (a minute). To say that you do something "for" a certain duration, use the preposition i.
