Telling Time & Days of the Week in Polish
The clock and the calendar are where Chapter 2 comes together: feminine ordinals for the hours, w + accusative for the days, and one elegant instrumental for the evening.
What Time Is It?
Która godzina? — literally "which hour?" Hours answer as feminine ordinals (godzina is a she): Jest pierwsza. Jest trzecia. Jest piąta.
At What Time
O której? — at what time? The answer slides into the locative: o pierwszej, o trzeciej, o piątej. Spotkanie jest o piątej — the meeting is at five.
Film jest o siódmej, a kolacja o dziewiątej.
The film is at seven and dinner at nine.
Note: o + locative every time: o siódmej, o dziewiątej.
The Days of the Week
Times of Day
rano (in the morning), po południu (in the afternoon), wieczorem (in the evening — an instrumental of time!), w nocy (at night). Plus the three anchors: dziś (today), jutro (tomorrow), wczoraj (yesterday).
Common Mistakes
- Cardinal hours. Jest trzy is three of something; three o'clock is jest trzecia.
- na sobotę for “on Saturday”. It's w sobotę (na sobotę means “for Saturday”).
- Morning confusion. rano is the morning; jutro is tomorrow; jutro rano — tomorrow morning.
What You Can Do Now
You can tell time, schedule your week and pin down meetings to the hour — and with it, you've closed Chapter 2: a full daily life, in Polish, cases and all.