Questions & Answers about Во сколько начинается концерт?
Во сколько literally means at how many (o’clock) and is used for asking about the exact clock time.
- Во сколько начинается концерт? – At what time does the concert start?
Когда just means when, without specifying that you want a clock time:
- Когда начинается концерт? – When does the concert start? (maybe “this evening”, “tomorrow”, etc., not necessarily “at 7:30”.)
So:
- use во сколько when you expect an answer like в семь, в 19:30, etc.
- use когда for a more general “when”.
Russian often changes в to во before certain consonant clusters to make pronunciation easier.
Saying в сколько is awkward because you’d have вск- together. Adding о gives a smoother во сколько.
The same thing happens in, for example:
- во Владивостоке instead of в Владивостоке
- во вторник instead of в вторник (many speakers prefer во вторник)
So the rule here is mainly about euphony (ease of pronunciation), not a change of meaning.
With time expressions like в пять часов (at five o’clock), в/во usually takes the accusative case.
Here, во сколько is really short for во сколько часов – at how many hours.
- сколько in во сколько is in the accusative, but its accusative form looks the same as the nominative (сколько doesn’t change form here).
So:
- Preposition: во
- Governing case: accusative (time – “at X o’clock”)
- Word: сколько (form identical in nominative and accusative)
No, that is wrong in standard Russian.
You need во to express the meaning at what time. Without во, сколько would mean how many, and the sentence Сколько начинается концерт? doesn’t make sense.
Correct forms:
- Во сколько начинается концерт? – At what time does the concert start?
- Когда начинается концерт? – When does the concert start?
Начинается is the reflexive form of the verb начинаться (to start, to begin – by itself).
- концерт начинается – the concert starts / is starting
Начинать (without -ся) is usually transitive – you start something:
- Оркестр начинает концерт. – The orchestra starts the concert.
Compare:
- Концерт начинается в семь. – The concert (itself) starts at seven.
- Оркестр начинает концерт в семь. – The orchestra starts the concert at seven.
In your sentence, the concert is just starting on its own, so you use the reflexive начинается.
Начинается is:
- present tense
- 3rd person singular
- imperfective aspect of начинаться.
It can also refer to scheduled future events, like English starts in The concert starts at 7.
You can also say:
- Во сколько начнётся концерт?
Начнётся is:
- future
- 3rd person singular
- perfective aspect of начаться.
Nuance:
- Во сколько начнётся концерт? – very natural for a specific future event (this particular concert).
- Во сколько начинается концерт? – can sound like you’re asking about a timetable or general schedule (e.g., “What time does the concert usually start?”), though it is often used for a specific future concert too.
Both are correct; начнётся is slightly more focused on that one future occurrence.
Russian usually keeps normal statement word order and shows a question by:
- Putting a question word at the beginning (here во сколько).
- Using question intonation.
Statement:
- Концерт начинается в семь. – The concert starts at seven.
Question:
- Во сколько начинается концерт? – At what time does the concert start?
You don’t need auxiliary verbs (no Russian equivalent of does) and you don’t have to invert the subject and verb.
Technically you can say Концерт начинается во сколько?, but it is usually an echo question, used when you didn’t hear or didn’t catch the time:
- A: Концерт начинается в семь.
- B: Концерт начинается во сколько? – The concert starts at what time? (surprised or checking)
As a neutral, first-time question, you should say:
- Во сколько начинается концерт?
You answer with в + time:
- Концерт начинается в семь. – The concert starts at seven.
- Концерт начинается в семь часов. – The concert starts at seven o’clock.
- Концерт начинается в 19:30. – The concert starts at 19:30 / 7:30 p.m.
- Концерт начинается в семь вечера. – The concert starts at seven in the evening.
Note: after numbers 5 and above, час becomes часов:
- в пять часов, в шесть часов.
Stresses:
- во СкОлько – stress on СкО-
- начинАется – stress on -нА- (на-чи-НÁ-ет-ся)
- концЕрт – stress on Е
Approximate pronunciation:
- во СкОлька начинАется концЕрт?
Notes:
- льк in сколько is a cluster: л is soft (like in “million”), followed immediately by к.
- Final -ться in начинается is [ца] (like “tsa”).
Во сколько начинается концерт? is neutral and can be used in both formal and informal contexts.
To make it more polite when asking a stranger or staff member, you can add polite phrases:
- Извините, во сколько начинается концерт? – Excuse me, at what time does the concert start?
- Скажите, пожалуйста, во сколько начинается концерт? – Tell me, please, at what time does the concert start?
The core question stays the same.
Yes. Во сколько is a general pattern for asking At what time…? about any event:
- Во сколько начинается фильм? – At what time does the movie start?
- Во сколько отправляется поезд? – At what time does the train depart?
- Во сколько начинается урок? – At what time does the lesson start?
- Во сколько вы приходите на работу? – At what time do you come to work?
The structure stays:
- Во сколько + verb + subject?