Pronunciation of "часа"

Question

What is the right way to stress the word часа?

I've seen both ча́са and часа́, is there a special case for each?

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 13 '17 at 16:45

10

What is the right way to stress the word часа?

The "right" one is ча́са, however, the most frequently used combinations, such as, two hours, three hours, four hours and a quarter of an hour all require the stress shift: два / три / четыре / четверть часа́. So this word is a bit tricky.

answered Nov 13 '17 at 16:45

Matt

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is this a regional dialect? – Trey Nov 13 '17 at 16:48
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@Trey No, it's a strict language rule. – Matt Nov 13 '17 at 16:55
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I guess "half an hour" полчасá also goes here. – Yellow Sky Nov 13 '17 at 17:13
What about треть часа? – Sergey Slepov Nov 13 '17 at 20:19
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@SergeySlepov - I'd say треть чáса. And Zaliznyak in his Grammar Dictionary mentions only 2, 3, 4, and ¼ with часá. There's also the third variant of the Genitive singular of час, it's чáсу, like in óколо чáсу, although óколо чáса is also correct. To finish it, час has also the Locative case: о чáсе (Prepositional), but в котóром часý? (Locative). – Yellow Sky Nov 14 '17 at 00:23
@SergeySlepov "Четверть часа́" is a very special case inside a special case (due to its frequency?), while "треть ча́са" is not. Consider "шаг"-"два шага́"-"полшага́", but "четверть ша́га"-"треть ша́га". – Matt Nov 14 '17 at 08:40
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I disagree with the part "the right one is". Both options are equally correct. – Abakan Nov 14 '17 at 09:23
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@Abakan They are not "equally" correct. "Два/три/четыре/четверть часа́" are exceptions with a stress on the last syllable. In all other cases "ча́са" must be used. That's not a matter of a personal (dis-)agreement, but a dictionary rule. – Matt Nov 14 '17 at 09:58
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I didn't mean both are interchangeable. I meant both pronounciations are correct (depending on situation). You even write it yourself in your answer. One is singular genitive and the other is plural nominative. And none is "righter" than the other. There's nothing "tricky" in it. – Abakan Nov 14 '17 at 10:15
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@Abakan Plural Nominative is "часы". "Часа́" is not a part of a declension at all, except few specific situations mentioned above (formally considered as an idiomatic usage). I intentionally put the word "right" into the quotes to show it's a standard form vs. an exception. Of course, exceptions are not "wrong", they are "tricky". – Matt Nov 14 '17 at 10:23
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Of course it is a part of declension. How else would you say "четыре часа"? Both variants are correct, therefore even putting "right" in the quotes is mislieading. One variant is not "righter" than the other. – Abakan Nov 14 '17 at 10:48
I cannot agree fully about четверть часа. (Maybe it is my SPb dialect.:-) In most cases четверть часа́ is used but in some phrases I can imagine четверть ча́са. For example: пробило вторую четверть ча́са. Sounds a bit archaic but possible. – farfareast Dec 21 '17 at 02:31
@farfareast Мы все допускаем ошибки в ударении. Иногда из-за диалектных особенностей, иногда из-за профессионального жаргона, а иногда и просто по привычке. Однако литературная норма от этого не меняется (ну или же меняется, но не так быстро как хочется :-) На сегодняшний день необходимо говорить "половина/треть/четверть/одна десятая ча́са" в любом контексте. – Matt Dec 21 '17 at 07:29

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 23 '17 at 08:30

When we talk about one hour, in the genitive case we use ча́са. For example: "Не прошло и ча́са, как ты пришел". If we talk about several hours, in the nominative case we use часа́. For example: "Три часа́ прошли незаметно".

score 4 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 18 '20 at 08:26

Wiktionary often has very helpful entries on declension and stress patterns.

At the entry for час, you can see this:

Declension of час (inan masc-form hard-stem accent-c irreg)

After numbers ending with 2, 3 or 4 (except for those ending with 12, 13 or 14), the stress of the genitive singular moves to the last syllable: два часа́, два́дцать три часа́, со́рок четы́ре часа́.

If you click on the Declension pane to reveal its contents, you will see:

            singular      plural
...
genitive    ча́са, часа́△   часо́в
...
△ Irregular.

At the page about stress patterns, you can find this pattern for type c:

                        ... c        ...
In nom/gen/dat/pre sg   ... stem     ...
In acc sg               ... stem     ...
In ins sg               ... stem     ...
In nom pl               ... ending   ...
In gen/dat/ins/pre pl   ... ending   ...
————————————————————————————————————————
example                 ... слой     ...

You can find a long list of nouns that follow the same stress pattern here. You can find a shorter list of nouns that have an irregular genitive singular here. If you cross-reference these lists, you can discover that the following words follow the same irregular pattern as час, and for the same reasons:

Sergey Kalinichenko · Answer 4 · 2017-12-19T14:40:10.780

"Час" is one of several masculine nouns that retained the old "dual number" pronunciation. Stress shifts from "ча́са" to "часа́" when the word is used in combination with 2, 3, 4, and compound numbers that require declension of 2, 3, and 4 (e.g. 23, 3002, and so on).

Note that in situations when stress shifts to the last syllable the unstressed "а" is pronounced as [i], for example "два часа" is pronounced as [dvɑ ʧisɑ], not as [dvɑ ʧɑsɑ].

Pronunciation of "часа"

4 Answers4