Telling the Time and Dates in Esperanto: je la tria

Clock times are la plus an ordinal (la tria, three o'clock), dates are ordinal + de + month, and -n on a time word means on or for with no preposition at all. Everything here is built from the numbers and endings you already have.

What time is it

The question is Kioma horo estas?, literally the how-manyeth hour is it?: kiom (how many) with the adjective ending. The answer is la plus an ordinal:

Horo is usually dropped, because la tria already means the third hour. Both are fine:

• Estas la tria horo. - It is three o'clock.

To say at a time, use je:

• Mi venos je la tria. - I will come at three.
• La filmo komenciĝas je la oka. - The film starts at eight.

Je is the preposition Esperanto keeps for jobs no other preposition claims, and clock time is its commonest one. The prepositions article has the rest.

Minutes, halves and quarters

Minutes join the hour with kaj, counting forwards from the hour that has struck. Before the next hour, use antaŭ:

• Estas la tria kaj duono. - It is half past three.
• Estas kvarono antaŭ la kvara. - It is a quarter to four.

La tria kaj duono is half past three, never half past two. German halb vier reaches towards the coming hour; Esperanto counts forwards, the English way.

For timetables and invitations, use the 24-hour clock and read the number straight:

• La kunveno komenciĝos je la dek-kvina horo. - The meeting starts at 15:00.

Noon is tagmezo and midnight noktomezo, both with je. The parts of the day work best as -e adverbs:

• Mi laboras matene. - I work in the morning.

Dates

An ordinal, de, and the month:

• la unua de marto - the first of March
• Hodiaŭ estas la tria de majo. - Today is the third of May.

Written with digits, the ordinal ending hyphenates onto the numeral: la 1-a de marto, la 23-a de septembro.

Weekdays are common nouns and take no capital letter. Months are traditionally capitalised, and PMEG's own examples still do it, but lower case is now very common and is what this page uses:

Years are one number

A year is read as a single number, never split into two halves the English way. The cardinal is the usual reading; mil okcent okdek sepa (the 1887th) is also heard:

En puts you inside the year, and centuries use the ordinal:

• Zamenhof publikigis la lingvon en 1887. - Zamenhof published the language in 1887.
• la dudeka jarcento - the twentieth century

The accusative of time

The accusative -n does more than mark objects. On a time word it says when or for how long, with no preposition:

In sentences:

• Mi laboris la tutan tagon. - I worked all day.
• Li restis en la urbo tri tagojn. - He stayed in town for three days.
• Ni komencos la unuan de marto. - We will begin on the first of March.

It never clashes with a real object in practice: nobody wonders whether you ate a Monday. Where a sentence would be unclear, use dum or en instead:

• Li laboris dum tri jaroj. - He worked for three years.

Before and after: antaŭ ol, post kiam

Antaŭ and post are prepositions: they take a noun, not a whole clause.

• antaŭ la milito - before the war
• post la vespermanĝo - after dinner

To put a clause after them, add a helper word. Dum and ĝis need none:

• Antaŭ ol li venis, mi dormis. - Before he came, I was asleep.
• Post kiam ŝi finis la libron, ŝi skribis leteron. - After she finished the book, she wrote a letter.
• Dum mi laboris, la knabo dormis. - While I was working, the boy slept.

Antaŭ ol also takes a bare infinitive when the subject stays the same:

• Antaŭ ol foriri, li dankis nin. - Before leaving, he thanked us.

With a length of time, antaŭ means ago and post means in (from now), and neither takes -n:

The -n marks how long; the preposition marks how far from now. Mix them up and you have moved an event.

Mistakes English speakers make

What to do next

1. Say the time aloud every hour today: Estas la deka kaj kvarono.
2. Say three dates that matter to you with la ... de ..., then with -n: Mi naskiĝis la trian de majo..
3. Read numbers for the ordinals and the long cardinals.