Days, months and telling the time in Hindi

The days of the week in Hindi end in -वार: सोमवार (Monday) through रविवार (Sunday). Month names in everyday use are the English ones written in Devanagari — जनवरी, फ़रवरी, मार्च. To ask the time, say क्या समय हुआ है? and to answer, use बजे: तीन बजे is three o'clock. Half past is साढ़े, quarter past is सवा, quarter to is पौने.

Days and months take an afternoon. The time system is where the real content is, because Hindi packs 'half past' and 'quarter to' into single words that come before the number rather than after it.

The seven days

The planets are the same ones English used, borrowed through a different route — Saturday from Saturn, Sunday from the sun. The two systems agree because both descend from the same Babylonian week.

You will also hear बृहस्पतिवार for Thursday and इतवार for Sunday. Both are common; गुरुवार and रविवार are what you will see printed.

Months: two systems, and only one you need

Everyday Hindi uses the Gregorian months, written in Devanagari. Calendars, newspapers, and every official form use these.

The traditional Hindu calendar runs alongside it with its own twelve months — चैत्र, वैशाख, ज्येष्ठ, आषाढ़, श्रावण, भाद्रपद, आश्विन, कार्तिक, मार्गशीर्ष, पौष, माघ, फाल्गुन. You need these for festivals, which are set by that calendar and therefore fall on different Gregorian dates each year. For arranging a meeting, you do not.

Telling the time: बजे

बजे means 'o'clock' and comes after the number. The question is क्या समय हुआ है? or, more colloquially, कितने बजे हैं?

Half past, quarter past, quarter to

These are single words placed before the number. This is the part worth memorising, because they are used constantly and there is no way to derive them.

पौने चार is 3:45, not 4:45. The word means 'quarter less than', so it points at the number that follows. This is the single most common mistake with Hindi time, and it makes you 45 minutes early rather than 15 minutes late.

The two irregular ones

1:30 and 2:30 do not use साढ़े. They have their own words, and no amount of pattern-matching will produce them.

डेढ़ and ढाई are not only clock words. They mean one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half generally: डेढ़ किलो is a kilo and a half. This is the same irregularity that runs through Hindi numbers as a whole.

Morning, afternoon, night

Hindi has no am and pm in speech. You name the part of the day, and it goes before the time.

Today, tomorrow, and the word that means both

कल means both tomorrow and yesterday. Which one is meant comes entirely from the verb tense, and Hindi speakers find this completely unambiguous.

If a translation tool renders कल for you without the surrounding sentence, it is guessing. This is one of the clearest cases where a whole paragraph translates correctly and a single extracted word cannot.