Breakdown of Интервал — десять минут, поэтому следующий автобус будет в двадцать минут седьмого.
автобус
bus
десять
ten
минута
minute
быть
to be
в
on / during (a time period)
поэтому
so (therefore)
следующий
next
двадцать
twenty
седьмой
seventh
интервал
interval
Questions & Answers about Интервал — десять минут, поэтому следующий автобус будет в двадцать минут седьмого.
How does в двадцать минут седьмого translate to 'at twenty minutes past six' if седьмого means 'seventh'?
In the traditional Russian time system, the first half of the hour is expressed by stating the minutes followed by the ordinal number of the upcoming hour in the Genitive case. Since 6:20 is twenty minutes into the seventh hour of the day, you say двадцать минут седьмого (twenty minutes of the seventh).
Why do we use в here, and what case is двадцать in?
To say 'at' a specific clock time, you use the preposition в followed by the Accusative case. Here, двадцать is in the Accusative case, which conveniently looks exactly the same as the Nominative case for this number.
Why is there a dash in the first clause: Интервал — десять минут?
In Russian, when the present-tense verb 'to be' (is/are) is omitted, a dash is often used to visually link the subject (Интервал) to its description or quantity (десять минут).
Why is the word for minutes spelled минут after both 10 and 20?
As a quick refresher: after numbers ending in 5 through 9, 0, and the teens (like десять and двадцать), the following noun must be in the Genitive plural. The Genitive plural of the feminine noun минута drops the final -а, leaving just минут.
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