If you learn one thing today, learn this: pola šest means half past five, not six. In our languages "half" counts toward the hour that's coming, not back from the one that's gone. Get that single idea and the rest of telling the time is easy — full hours are just a number plus sati, and the question is always Koliko je sati?
Published 28 April 2026 · Updated 3 August 2026
I've watched more students miss a bus over this than over any grammar rule. Somebody's friend says nađemo se u pola sedam, they turn up at 7:30, and the friend has been drinking coffee alone since 6:30. So we'll fix the pola trap first, then walk calmly through the rest.
To ask the time: Koliko je sati? — word for word, "how many hours (is it)?". The answer starts with Sada je… ("It is now…") or you can just say the time. If you want to ask when something happens, change the little word in front: U koliko sati? — "at what time?".
Say the number, then the word for hour. It's sat for one, sata for two to four, and sati from five up — that's just the counting pattern you already meet with every noun, so if you've done numbers 1 to 100 it'll feel familiar.
Here's the mechanism, because "just memorise it" never sticks. Pola means half. But it's half of the coming hour — you're halfway through building the next one. So pola šest is "half of the sixth hour", i.e. thirty minutes into the journey from five to six. Which is 5:30.
Every pola time is one hour "earlier" than an English brain guesses. Pola tri = 2:30. Pola deset = 9:30. When in doubt, subtract one from the number you hear.
For "past", you say the hour and (i) the minutes. For "to", you count down with do ("until"). Quarter is i petnaest (and fifteen) or the tidier i po-style phrases below.
| Clock | Serbian / Montenegrin | Literally |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00 | sedam sati | seven hours |
| 7:15 | sedam i petnaest | seven and fifteen |
| 7:30 | pola osam | half (of the) eighth |
| 7:45 | petnaest do osam | fifteen to eight |
| 7:50 | deset do osam | ten to eight |
Notice 7:30 and 7:45 both point at eight, not seven — same logic as pola. Once you're past the half-hour, you're talking about the next hour.
If the pola/do gymnastics fry your brain in the moment, do what half the country does anyway: read it off like a digital clock. Sedam i trideset (seven and thirty) for 7:30, sedam i četrdeset pet for 7:45. Nobody will blink. Timetables and phones have made this completely normal, and it buys you time to get the traditional phrases automatic.
— Koliko je sati? (What time is it?)
— Sada je pola pet. (It's half past four.)
— U koliko sati kreće autobus? (What time does the bus leave?)
— U deset do osam. (At ten to eight.)
Nobody tells the time for fun — you tell it to arrange something. So here's the little kit that turns a number into a plan. The key word is u ("at") before the time, and the rest is a handful of verbs you'll reach for daily:
| Serbian / Montenegrin | Say it | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Nađemo se u sedam. | NAH-jeh-moh seh oo SEH-dahm | Let's meet at seven. |
| Može u pola devet? | MOH-zheh oo POH-lah DEH-vet | Works at 8:30? (lit. "can it be…") |
| tačno u osam | TAHCH-noh oo OH-sahm | at eight sharp |
| oko devet | OH-koh DEH-vet | around nine |
| Kasnim! | KAHS-neem | I'm running late! |
| Stižem za pet minuta. | STEE-zhem zah pet mee-NOO-tah | I'll be there in five minutes. |
Two habits worth stealing from locals: oko ("around") is your friend when you're not sure — oko devet is far safer than committing to a minute — and tačno ("exactly/sharp") is what you add when you genuinely mean it. And if this is all part of a longer chat, the openers in our small talk guide get you to the point where you're actually arranging the coffee.
There's no am/pm in speech. If it's not obvious, tack on the time of day: ujutru (in the morning), popodne (in the afternoon), uveče (in the evening), noću (at night). So u sedam ujutru is 7am, u sedam uveče is 7pm. On a printed timetable you'll just see the 24-hour clock — 20:15 — and that's a good moment to practise the numbers past twelve. If you want the whole calendar side of things, we covered days, months and dates separately.
That's the lot. Master the pola rule, keep the digital fallback in your back pocket, and you'll never sit alone with a cold coffee wondering where your friend is. It's one stop on the wider learn Serbian roadmap — want to drill these until they come without thinking? Gora throws them at you in real sentences with a fox who'll happily tell you the time all afternoon.