Telling time and talking about when
Time in Turkish lives at two scales. The everyday axis: bugün (today), yarın (tomorrow), dün (yesterday), şimdi (now), önce (before/earlier), sonra (after/later). The clock: saat literally means 'hour' and also 'clock/watch'. Saat kaç? = What time is it? — answer: Saat üç. = It's three. For half hours: Saat üç buçuk. (3:30). For quarters and minutes you use geçiyor (it's past) and var (there is, used as 'to'). Duration uses boyunca (throughout) or the suffix -dir (for / since).
The basic time words
Anchored to today: bugün (today), yarın (tomorrow), dün (yesterday). Anchored to now: şimdi (right now), az önce (a moment ago), birazdan (in a moment). Sequence: önce (before / first), sonra (after / then), bazen (sometimes), her zaman (always), hiçbir zaman (never), genellikle (usually). With a verb: Yarın okula gidiyorum = I'm going to school tomorrow. Dün geldim = I came yesterday.
What time is it?
Saat kaç? = What time is it? Reply with Saat + number: Saat bir (1:00), Saat iki (2:00), Saat üç (3:00), Saat dört (4:00), and so on through twelve. Casually you can drop saat: just Üç. Half hour: Saat üç buçuk = 3:30 (literally 'three-and-a-half'). Quarter past: Saat üçü çeyrek geçiyor = It's a quarter past three (literally 'three-acc quarter is-passing'). Quarter to: Saat üçe çeyrek var = It's a quarter to three (literally 'three-dat quarter there-is').
Past the hour vs. before the hour
Two patterns based on whether you're past or before the hour. Past (after the hour, up to half): hour in accusative + minutes + geçiyor. Üçü on geçiyor = It's ten past three. Üçü beş geçiyor = 3:05. Before (before the next hour, after half): hour in dative + minutes + var. Dörde on var = It's ten to four. Üçe çeyrek var = It's a quarter to three. The half hour stays special: Saat üç buçuk for 3:30.
At what time? — locative
Coming up technically in the next round of cases, but you'll see it now: -de / -da / -te / -ta marks 'at' a time. Saat üçte = at three o'clock. Saat sekizde = at eight. Sabahleyin (in the morning), akşamleyin (in the evening) take a different idiomatic suffix. The full expression: Saat üçte buluşalım = Let's meet at three. Yarın saat sekizde = tomorrow at eight.
Duration
For length of time: iki saat = two hours, üç gün = three days, bir hafta = a week. boyunca (throughout): iki saat boyunca çalıştım = I worked for two hours. The suffix -dir can also mean 'for / since': iki yıldır Türkçe öğreniyorum = I've been learning Turkish for two years. Frequency: günde bir = once a day, haftada üç kez = three times a week — the time unit takes the locative.
