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How do you ask what time is it in Japan?
How to Tell Time in Japanese?
Talking about Time in Japanese
In today’s article we will learn how to speak and ask about time in Japanese.
It is useful when we understand and can talk about time in Japanese.
Hope, the above document will be helpful for those who are studying Japanese.
I wish you good study, good exam.
時 ジ とき : Time, Hour, Opportunity
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow in Japanese
昨日 きのう kinou = yesterday
今日 きょう kyou = today
明日 あした ashita = tomorrow
先週 せんしゅう senshuu = last week
今週 こんしゅう konshuu = this week
来週 らいしゅう raishuu = next week
先月 せんげつ sengetsu = last month
今月 こんげつ kongetsu = this month
来月 らいげつ raigetsu = next moth
去年 きょねん kyonen = last year
今年 ことし kotoshi = this year
来年 らいねん rainen = next year
Common Compounds
一時 いちじ、いっとき : one o’clock, for a time
時間 じかん : time, period
時々 ときどき sometimes
分 ブン、フン わ（ける） : Minute, Part, Divide, Understand
Common Compounds
十分 じゅうぶん、じゅうぷん : ten minutes, enough
自分 じぶん : oneself
半分 はんぶん : half
Hours of the Day
一時 いちじ : 01 O’Clock
二時 にじ : 02 O’Clock
三時 さんじ : 03 O’Clock
四時 よじ : 04 O’Clock
五時 ごじ : 05 O’Clock
六時 ろくじ : 06 O’Clock
七時 しちじ : 07 O’Clock
八時 はちじ : 08 O’Clock
九時 くじ : 09 O’Clock
十時 じゅうじ : 10 O’Clock
十一時 じゅういちじ : 11 O’Clock
十二時 じゅうにじ : 12 O’Clock
Minutes of the Hour
一分 いっぷん: 0:01
二分 にふん : 0:02
三分 さんぷん : 0:03
四分 よんぷん : 0:04
五分 ごふん : 0:05
六分 ろっぷん : 0:06
七分 ななふん : 0:07
八分 はっぷん : 0:08
九分 きゅうふん : 0:09
十分 じゅっぷん : 0:10
Notes:
For minutes attach -分 to the standard set of numbers. Please note that 分 is pronounced differently depending on the number. Based on what I’ve picked up randomly, as I haven’t looked into the reasoning thoroughly, this stems from the evolution of the language and the desire to make common words easier to pronounce. This leads to things like いっぷん instead of いちふん or ろっぷん instead of ろくふん and so on. They are all similar sounding, but typically drop a syllable or use a dakuon version of ふん to make them flow off the tongue easier. Try saying each with the ‘normal’ readings for numbers we learned previously followed by the correct version and you’ll see this for yourself.
Also, to say any other minute number, simply use the minutes for one to ten and apply the basic counting system we learned in the numbers vocabulary post.
0:25 would be two tens, five minutes or 二十五分 (にじゅっごふん)
0:41 would be four tens, four minutes or 四十一分 (よんじゅっいっぷん)
0:59 would be five tens, nine minutes or 五十九分 (ごきゅうきゅうふん)
If you wanted to know the exact time of day, with hours and minutes, you simply combine the hour and minute numbers from above.
十二時四十五分 じゅうにじよんじゅっごふん 12:45
六時十五分 ろくじじゅっごふん 06:15
九時三十分 くじさんじゅっぷん 09:30
Finally, you can use A.M. and P.M. to signal if it’s morning or afternoon by using ごぜん for A.M. and ごご for P.M. They are listed before the time and would read in English as A.M. 7:30 in Japanese instead of the normal 7:30 A.M.
Related Post:
Japanese Vocabulary List: Adverb of Time
Adverbs of Time in Japanese
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