Hungarian time – and how to tell it

Readers of this blog may probably know that Hungarian is a 'difficult' language.

This difficulty refers to the frustration experienced by any foreigner attempting to understand, or learn to speak, this truly individual language.

Hungarian uses a unique vocabulary. Hungarian grammar is determined by many rules, many exceptions to these rules and, ultimately, an almost free-form of putting a sentence together.

Such flexibility, sometimes, can be an advantage to students – except, of course, when language needs to be precise.

One illustration of Magyar flexibility, and the confusion it can present, is the way in which Hungarians tell the time.

In the English language there are, indeed, many ways of stating the time: eight o'clock; twenty hundred hours; eight fifteen; quarter past eight; twenty past eight; twenty minutes past eight; half past eight, half eight, eight forty, etc. But all these terms have a clear relationship to a specific hour. Or so it seems...

In Hungarian, time is viewed differently – and, just maybe, more correctly. Although constructions similar to English are available – and can often be used – Hungarians prefer to indicate time by referring to the forthcoming hour.

Thus 'eight-fifteen' in English becomes a 'quarter-nine'. 'Eight-thirty' is 'half-nine' and 'eight-forty-five' is 'three-quarters-nine'.

One explanation is that, optimistically, Hungarians prefer to look to the future!

This future construction becomes more complex when indicating exact minutes. For example, 'in ten minutes half nine' means 'eight-twenty'. Or, 'three-quarters nine will be in ten minutes' means 'eight-thirty-five'.

In essence, Hungarians use the 'twenty to three' forward-looking English construction throughout every hour. And, arguably, this is more consistent than the English form that can soon jump from 'twenty past two' to 'twenty to three'.

However, when the familiar 'three twenty-two' can be used just as easily (especially by younger Hungarians) as the alternative 'seven minutes past quarter four', the difficulty of understanding Hungarian becomes all too clear.

Or do I mean all too obscure...?