You've already learned how to tell the time in Turkish using full and half hours. In this lesson you will learn how to tell the time more precisely.

To tell that it is a certain amount of minutes after the hour, we use the word geçiyor, and the hour receives an accusative case suffix.

It's five past three. (03:05)

Saat üçü beş geçiyor.

Literally translated, the sentence above means Five are passing hour three.

To tell that it is a certain amount of minutes before the hour, we use the word var, and the hour receives a dative case suffix.

It's twenty minutes to nine. (08:40)

Saat dokuza yirmi var.

Literally translated, the sentence above means There are twenty until hour nine.

For intervals of fifteen minutes we can use the word çeyrek instead.

It's quarter past ten. (10:15)	Saat onu çeyrek geçiyor.
It's quarter to four. (03:45)	Saat dörde çeyrek var.

Stating the time as an adverb, for example saying at ten past twelve, is done by using geçe instead of geçiyor, and using kala instead of var.

Let's meet at ten past twelve. (12:10)	(Saat) on ikiyi on geçe buluşalım.
Be at the door at seven minutes to eight. (07:53)	(Saat) sekize yedi kala kapıda ol.

As you can see in these last two sentences, when the time is expressed as an adverb, using Saat at the beginning of the sentence is optional.

Breakdown of Saat dokuza yirmi var.