You have agreed to meet a Swedish friend at halv fem. You arrive at half past five, pleased to be on time. Your friend has been waiting for an hour. In Swedish, halv fem does not mean half past five. It means halfway to five: 4:30.
This is the one real trap in telling the time in Swedish. Everything else is simple, and it all fits in one table.
Asking
- Vad är klockan? What time is it?
- Hur mycket är klockan? The same thing, a little more everyday.
The answer starts with Klockan är ... or, in speech, Hon är ... The clock is a "she".
The whole hour, piece by piece
Take the hour between five and six.
| Time | Swedish | Word for word |
|---|---|---|
| 5:00 | fem | five |
| 5:05 | fem över fem | five over five |
| 5:10 | tio över fem | ten over five |
| 5:15 | kvart över fem | quarter over five |
| 5:20 | tjugo över fem | twenty over five |
| 5:25 | fem i halv sex | five to half six |
| 5:30 | halv sex | half six |
| 5:35 | fem över halv sex | five over half six |
| 5:40 | tjugo i sex | twenty to six |
| 5:45 | kvart i sex | quarter to six |
| 5:50 | tio i sex | ten to six |
| 5:55 | fem i sex | five to six |
Two small words do all the work: över means past, and i means to.
The trap, explained
Look at 5:30 again. It is halv sex, with the number of the hour that is coming, not the one that has been. Swedes think of the half hour as half of the way to the next hour.
If English is your language, you will want to say halv fem for 5:30, because you say "half past five". If you are British, it is worse, because "half five" means 5:30 to you. In Swedish, halv fem is 4:30, always.
The safest habit is to translate halv as "half to", not as "half".
The strange ones around the half hour
At 5:25 and 5:35 Swedish counts from the half hour instead of from the full one: fem i halv sex and fem över halv sex. It looks odd on paper, but you will hear it all the time. If it is too much to begin with, say fem och tjugofem for 5:25. Everyone will understand.
Morning or evening?
Spoken Swedish uses the twelve-hour clock, and adds the part of the day when it is not obvious.
- klockan sju på morgonen seven in the morning
- klockan tre på eftermiddagen three in the afternoon
- klockan åtta på kvällen eight in the evening
Timetables, tickets and invitations use the twenty-four-hour clock, and it is written with a period: 17.30. You read it as sjutton och trettio. Nobody says that across a kitchen table, but you will hear it at every train station.
Making a date
- Vi ses klockan sju. See you at seven.
- Vi ses vid sju. See you around seven.
- Vi ses halv åtta. See you at 7:30. Not 8:30.
Try it
Say these in Swedish.
- 7:15
- 9:30
- 2:45
- 6:25
- 11:35
- 8:50
Answers:
- kvart över sju
- halv tio
- kvart i tre
- fem i halv sju
- fem över halv tolv
- tio i nio
If you got number 2 right without stopping to think, you will never be an hour late in Sweden.
The numbers, the days and the parts of the day are among the first words in our crosswords for learners.
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