Telling the Time in English and Hindi: सवा, साढ़े and पौने

Telling the time is a daily skill, and Hindi has a neat system for quarters and halves that has no exact English equivalent.

Basic questions

• What time is it? — कितने बजे हैं? / समय क्या हुआ है?
• It is five o'clock. — पाँच बजे हैं।
• At what time? — कितने बजे?

Quarters and halves

Hindi uses special words:

Hindi	Meaning	Example
सवा	quarter past (one and a quarter)	सवा पाँच = 5:15
साढ़े	half past (plus a half)	साढ़े पाँच = 5:30
पौने	quarter to (minus a quarter)	पौने छह = 5:45

Note that डेढ़ (1:30) and ढाई (2:30) are special words used only for those two times.

• 1:30 → डेढ़ बजे
• 2:30 → ढाई बजे
• 3:30 → साढ़े तीन बजे

Parts of the day

English	Hindi
morning	सुबह
noon / afternoon	दोपहर
evening	शाम
night	रात

Note: शाम is roughly late afternoon to evening.

Daily routine

• I wake up at six. — मैं छह बजे उठता हूँ।
• I go to work at nine. — मैं नौ बजे काम पर जाता हूँ।
• We eat dinner at eight. — हम आठ बजे रात का खाना खाते हैं।
• I go to bed at ten thirty. — मैं साढ़े दस बजे सोता हूँ।

(Feminine speakers say उठती हूँ, जाती हूँ, सोती हूँ.)

Translating tip

English "quarter to six" is पौने छह; note that Hindi counts toward the next hour. Many learners say "five forty-five" in English and this works well as a translation, too.

Practice

1. Say the time from a clock every hour.
2. Learn सवा / साढ़े / पौने with a few examples.
3. Use the dictionary to check any unfamiliar time word.

Look up any word with English Hindi Dictionary →