Breakdown of Физика кончается в половине третьего.
в
on / during (a time period)
кончаться
to end (of an event)
третий
third
половина
half
Questions & Answers about Физика кончается в половине третьего.
Why does the Russian sentence use третьего (third) when the English translation says 'two'?
In traditional Russian time-telling, half-hours are thought of as being halfway through the upcoming hour. So 2:30 is literally 'half of the third hour'. Третьего is the genitive case of the ordinal number третий (third).
Why is it в половине instead of just половина?
To say that something happens at a certain time, you use the preposition в. With half-hours, this в triggers the Prepositional case, changing половина to в половине. If you just wanted to state the current time ('It is 2:30'), you would use the Nominative case without the preposition: Половина третьего.
Why does the verb кончается have the reflexive -ся ending here?
The reflexive verb кончаться is used when an event simply comes to an end on its own. If you used the non-reflexive verb кончать (to finish), you would need someone or something to actively do the finishing, like a teacher finishing a lesson.
How do you pronounce the ending of третьего?
Even though it is spelled with a 'г' (g), the genitive endings -его and -ого are pronounced with a 'в' (v) sound. So, третьего sounds like 'tretyevo'. This is a standard pronunciation rule for all adjectives and ordinal numbers in the genitive masculine and neuter forms.