Learn Romanian: E ora patru și un sfert. - It is a quarter past four.

When telling the time in Romanian, you usually include the word ora (the hour). Literally, you are saying "It is the hour four...". While English drops the word "hour" entirely in this context, Romanian keeps it to be clear.

How does și un sfert mean "a quarter past"?

Literally, și un sfert means "and a quarter". In Romanian, to say it is "past" the hour, you just use și (and) followed by the minutes or the fraction of the hour. So "four and a quarter" is how Romanians express "a quarter past four".

Why is it un sfert instead of o sfert?

Sfert (quarter) is a neuter noun in Romanian. This means it behaves like a masculine noun in the singular, so it takes the masculine/neuter article un (a/an). For "a quarter past", it is always the singular un sfert.

If I wanted to say "a quarter to four", would I still use și?

No, și is only used for adding minutes past the hour. To say "a quarter to four" (meaning 3:45), you use the word fără (without). You would say E ora patru fără un sfert (literally: "It is the hour four without a quarter").