#45 Hva er klokka? - telling the time in Norwegian [expression] [culture]

We start with the everyday question, “What time is it at your place?”, and use it to unpack why telling time in Norwegian can feel strangely hard at first.

We walk through two reliable paths: digital time and analogue time. For digital time, we keep it clean and practical: use the 24-hour clock and say only numbers, like fourteen thirty and fourteen fifteen. 

Then we move into the fun part: analogue time and the clock-face logic many Norwegians use. We explain the shifting reference points around the hour, and we spend extra time on the concept that trips up most learners: “halv” as “halfway to” the next hour. 

If you want to speak Norwegian more naturally, press play, try the quick test near the end, and share your answer with us. Subscribe, share the episode with a fellow learner, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

What Time Is It Here

Silje 0:14

Hva er klokka? Hva er klokka hos deg? What is the clock? What time is it at your place? Hva er klokka hos deg?

Why Time Gets Confusing

Silje 0:33

Telling the time in Norwegian is maybe not as straightforward as one would wish for. But there is a logic, I promise you.

Digital Time And The 24-Hour Clock

Silje 0:45

Now if you find it super hard, don't worry, you can always talk about time in a digital way. So for instance, saying, Oh, now for instance, it's 1231 here. You can be as straightforward as that. And in that case, you would use the 24 hour clock. So uh 2 30 pm would be fjorten tretti. Fjorten tretti. You cannot mix digital in analogue hour, so you will always just say the numbers when you use the digital time. You will never say twelve and a half, for instance. That doesn't work. You have to say tolv tretti. Or quarter past fourteen. Nope, that doesn't work. It has to be fourteen fifteen, fjorten femten. So only numbers. But now we're gonna talk about something that is much more interesting.

Analog Clocks And The Hands

Silje 1:58

Analogue time. Remember those old clocks? The old watches that we used to wear in the good old days with these time Oh god, what is it på what is it called in in English? I just learned something new. In English it's called minute hand, an hour hand and second hand. Ha, that's interesting. In Norwegian we call it the minute shower the hour shower and the second shower. So it's an minute visid and secund visid or an team visid. So you have to imagine that old analogue watch in order to understand the logic of this system.

Quarter Past And Quarter To Logic

Silje 2:48

Norwegians when they think about time, they imagine this watch and they split it in half horizontally. So uh between a quarter past and a quarter two, you will look at the you don't look at time the same way as between quarter two and quarter past. Okay, uh you have two reference påints. Either you're looking at your the whole hour as your reference påint, so when you're closer to the whole hour, which means quarter two, let's say quarter to three, just to have an example, between quarter to three and quarter past three, then your reference påint will be three o'clock. And that's the easiest part. It works the logic is the same as in English. You would say kvart på tre, quarter to three, kvart på tre, quarter to three, ti på tre, ten to three Fem på tre, five to three. I'm only talking about time in in five minute bits because you only use analog time when you're you don't have to be more precise than that. If somebody asked me uh when will the train leave, I would probably use digital time so I can be more specific about time. So på when we're getting closer to the whole hour, we use på ti på fem på okay? And then if it's over three, we will use "over" past over, fem over tre, ti over tre, kvart over tre, okay now. The easiest part is

The “Halfway To” Half Hour

Silje 5:03

over. I'm sorry. If you get past that the those fifteen minutes past, um then you are suddenly closer to what we call halv team, half hour, and a half hour when you say for instance when I say halv tre, when I say halv tre in region, that means 2:30. And the logic in that is that I am halfway in the hour leading to the third hour, right? I'm halfway there, halv tre. And since my reference påint is gonna be "halv tre", I'm halfway to three, uh, I have to use that as a reference påint, and then I'm gonna add and say, How close am I? How close am I to halv tre? 230. It starts with T. So 20 past will be T på halv T. 10 to half. Oh can't translate that to English because that's gonna be confusing. 10 to 230, halfway to no one more time. Ten to two thirty. Ten minutes left until we are two thirty. halv halfway to three. Are you still with me? Okay, imagine that minute hand. It was on twenty, now it's uh it's on twenty-five, which means that we have five minutes left before we are um on thirty minutes. So we're gonna say fem påem påor halv tide five minutes to two thirty halfway to three fem påol tare five minutes to halfway to three Okay, then we're good. Fire we we're gonna move the minute hand five minutes. Well that's easy, and now it's halv Tere Halfway to three, two thirty. We're gonna move the minute hand five more minutes. It's showing thirty-five now, which means that we are five minutes past halfway to three. So we're gonna say over fem over Fem over halv Tre, Five minutes past or five minutes over, halfway to three. Five more minutes, and this is the last one, and then you can breathe again. Ten minutes past halfway to three. Ti over halv tre.

Worked Examples Around Half Past

Silje 8:34

Okay, I hope that helps as usual, and I'm gonna look at my clock and I'm gonna see what time it is, and this is perfect because this will be a good test for you. Klokka er ti over halv ett, ti over halv ett, and if you don't know it yet, et does not mean eight, it means one in this case E T T double "ti over halv ett"

Quick Test And Comment Prompt

Silje 9:30

Hva er klokka hos meg? What time is it at my place? Could you write it in the comment field? And then question for you that I would you like you to write out in letters Hva er klokka hos deg nå? Hva er klokka hos deg nå? What time is it at your place now? Let me know in the comment field. Takk for i dag! Vi høres!