Learn to express half-hour times using половина (half) and discuss your university schedule.
Expressing "Half Past"
To say "half past" an hour in Russian, look ahead to the upcoming hour. You literally say "half of the [next] hour."
Use the noun половина followed by the Genitive case of the ordinal number for the next hour. For example, 1:30 is halfway to 2:00, so you say "half of the second": половина второго.
| It's half past one now, and math is starting. | Сейчас половина второго, и начинается математика. |
Saying "At" Half Past
To say an event happens at a certain half-hour, use the preposition в. The word половина changes to the Prepositional case (в половине), while the ordinal number stays Genitive.
For example, "at 2:30" becomes в половине третьего (at half of the third).
| Physics ends at half past two. | Физика кончается в половине третьего. |
| Our seminar was at half past four. | Наш семинар был в половине пятого. |
| Geography begins at half past eight. | География начинается в половине девятого. |
University Classes and "Skipping"
When talking about your schedule, you will use academic subjects like математика, физика, биология, and литература.
To say you are missing or skipping a class, use the verbs пропускать (imperfective) or пропустить (perfective). Because the class is the direct object of the verb, it takes the Accusative case. Feminine subjects ending in -а change to -у, and those ending in -я change to -ю.
| I never skip biology. | Я никогда не пропускаю биологию. |
| You need to skip literature today. | Сегодня тебе нужно пропустить литературу. |
Inanimate masculine nouns like семинар (seminar) or доклад (report/presentation) do not change their form in the Accusative:
| Why do you often skip the seminar? | Почему ты часто пропускаешь семинар? |
| The student read the report at half past six. | Студент прочитал доклад в половине седьмого. |