Halves and Fractions

Level 4

Pol means half and never changes: pol kila, pol hodiny. Polovica (half), tretina (a third) and štvrtina (a quarter) are nouns. The thing that is divided comes after them in the genitive: polovica študentov.

How It Works

Pol: half. Pol never changes, and the noun after it is in the genitive, as after other amount words: pol kila syra, pol litra mlieka, pol hodiny, pol roka.

… and a half. Add a pol after the whole number: rok a pol (a year and a half), hodinu a pol, dva a pol litra.

Parts as nouns.

  • polovica – half: polovica koláča
  • tretina – a third: tretina ľudí
  • štvrtina – a quarter: štvrtina mesta
  • pätina, šestina, desatina, stotina – a fifth, a sixth, a tenth, a hundredth

They are built from ordinals (tretí → tretina) and behave like žena: jedna tretina, dve tretiny, tri štvrtiny, päť šestín. Polovica follows ulica: dve polovice, v polovici týždňa.

Štvrť. Štvrť is a short word for a quarter, mostly with measures and time: štvrť hodiny (a quarter of an hour), štvrť kila. It usually does not change, but three quarters is tri štvrte: tri štvrte hodiny. In clock times, štvrť na tri means 2:15, pol tretej means 2:30 and tri štvrte na tri means 2:45. See Telling the Time.

Agreement. A fraction noun is the subject, so in careful style the verb is singular and feminine in the past: Polovica študentov prišla neskoro. A plural verb is sometimes heard in speech, but the singular is the standard choice. See Agreement With Words Like väčšina.

Decimals. Slovak writes a decimal comma and reads it with celá / celé: 2,5 is dva celé päť.

Examples (6)

  1. Prosím si pol kila syra.

    Half a kilo of cheese, please.

    Word by Word: I-ask myself half of-kilo of-cheese.

  2. Na Slovensku som žil rok a pol.

    I lived in Slovakia for a year and a half.

    Word by Word: In Slovakia I-lived year and half.

  3. Čakali sme pol hodiny.

    We waited half an hour.

    Word by Word: We-waited half of-hour.

  4. Tretina ľudí nevie plávať.

    A third of the people can't swim.

    Word by Word: Third of-people not-knows to-swim.

    Tretina is singular, so the verb is singular too.

  5. Polovica študentov prišla neskoro.

    Half of the students came late.

    Word by Word: Half of-students came(fem.) late.

  6. Zjedli sme tri štvrtiny koláča.

    We ate three quarters of the cake.

    Word by Word: We-ate three quarters of-cake.

Common Mistakes

  • Leaving the noun after pol in the nominative.

    Kúpil som pol kilo syra.
    Kúpil som pol kila syra.

    Pol is an amount word, so the noun after it is in the genitive: pol kila, pol litra, pol hodiny.

  • Leaving the whole in the nominative after a fraction noun.

    Tretina ľudia nevie plávať.
    Tretina ľudí nevie plávať.

    The whole that is divided follows in the genitive: tretina ľudí, polovica študentov, štvrtina mesta.

  • Not changing the fraction noun after dve.

    Dve tretina ľudí súhlasia.
    Dve tretiny ľudí súhlasia.

    Tretina behaves like žena: dve tretiny, like dve ženy.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Halves and FractionsLevel 4

Learn This First

Before Halves and Fractions, learn Genitive After Amounts. Fractions take the genitive, like other amount words.

Words in This Pattern

polpolovicatretinaštvrťštvrtina