Understanding how to express time and dates is essential for daily communication in the Faroe Islands.

This guide breaks down the exact phrases you need to tell time and name the days of the week in Faroese.

You’ll learn the vocabulary for hours, minutes, and days, along with a few important regional variations.

I’ve kept the explanations simple so you can start using these words immediately.

Asking for the time in Faroese

There’s one main phrase you need to know to ask for the time in Faroese.

You simply ask, “hvat er klokkan?”

This translates directly to “what is the clock?” in English.

If you want to be polite when stopping a stranger, you can add “orsaka” (excuse me) to the beginning of your sentence.

Telling the time

When responding to someone asking the time, you always start your sentence with “klokkan er…” (the clock is…).

Telling the exact hour is very straightforward.

You just state “klokkan er” followed by the number.

When talking about minutes, we use the words “yvir” (past) and “í” (to).

For a quarter past the hour, you use “korter yvir”.

For a quarter to the hour, you use “korter í”.

There’s one major rule you must remember about half-hours in Faroese.

Unlike English, Faroese looks forward to the next hour rather than backward.

This means that 2:30 isn’t “half past two”, but rather “halfway to three”.

You express this using the word “hálvgum” (half) followed by the upcoming hour.

Days of the week in Faroese

Learning the days of the week is a quick process because they share the same Germanic roots as English.

Every day ends with the word “dagur” (day).

Here are the standard Faroese days of the week.

There’s an important regional variation you’ll encounter in the Faroe Islands.

On the southernmost island of Suðuroy, the dialect is slightly different.

People in Suðuroy often say ónsdagur instead of mikudagur for Wednesday.

They also use tórsdagur instead of hósdagur for Thursday.

If you’re speaking to people in the capital of Tórshavn or anywhere else in the country, you should stick to the standard mikudagur and hósdagur.

When you want to say “on Monday” or “on Friday”, you simply drop the “-ur” suffix and just use the accusative form of the word.

Essential time vocabulary

To complete your ability to talk about time, you need a few core temporal words.

These words allow you to talk about the past, present, and future.

You can easily combine these words with the days of the week.