Telling & Asking Time in Japanese

1. Lesson 3
Telling and Asking Times
Lesson Recap
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2. Telling Times
To tell times in Japanese, we add じ／j i after each clock time.
いち じ／ichi-ji
しち じ／ shichi-ji
に じ／ ni-ji
はち じ／ hachi-ji
さん じ／ san-ji
く じ／ ku-ji
よ じ／ yo-ji
じゅう じ／ juu-ji
ご じ／ go-ji
じゅういち じ／ juu ichi-ji
ろく じ／ roku-ji
じゅうに じ／ juu ni-ji
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3. How to read minutes
It may be too complicated for beginners to memorize all minutes readings.
They depend on numbers and all are mixed up between ふん／fun and ぷん
／(p)pun , therefore, we just sort them into 2 groups for each way as follows
for now.
Minutes end with 5
ふん／fun
5 ふん／go fun
15 ふん／go fun
25 ふん／go fun
35 ふん／go fun
Minutes end with 0
ぷん／(p)pun
10 ぷん／juppun
20 ぷん／nijuppun
30 ぷん／sanjuppun
40 ぷん／yonjuppun
45 ふん／go fun
50 ぷん／gojuppun
55 ふん／go fun
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4. To tell minutes in Japanese, ふん／fun or ぷん／(p)pun is added
followed by minutes after each clock time. Also 30 minutes after
each hour can be replaced to はん／han as half an hour.
さん じ ご ふん／
san-ji go-fun
さん じ じゅうご ふん／
san-ji juu go-fun
さん じ にじゅうご ふん／
san-ji ni juu go-fun
さん じ さんじゅうご ふん／
san-ji san juu go-fun
さん じ よんじゅうご ふん／
san-ji yon juu go-fun
さん じ ごじゅうご ふん／
san-ji go juu go-fun
さん じ じゅっぷん／
san-ji ju-ppun
さん じ にじゅっぷん／
san-ji ni ju-ppun
さん じ さんじゅっぷん／
san-ji san ju-ppun
= さん じ はん／ san-ji han
さん じ よんじゅっぷん／
san-ji yon ju-ppun
さん じ ごじゅっぷん／
san-ji go ju-ppun
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5. Telling A.M and P.M. Times
To tell clock times with AM and PM, we add ごぜん／go z en as AM,
and ごご／g og o as PM before each clock time.
ごぜん よじ／gozen yo-ji
4:00 am
ごご くじ／gogo ku-ji
9:00 pm
AM
PM
Make sure that the placements of AM and PM come before the
clock time which is opposite from the English expression.
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6. Asking Times
To ask times in Japanese, we use なん／nan ( = what) and じ／ji
(= time) as なんじ／n a n - j i .
いま なんじ ですか。
ima nan-ji desuka.
12じ です。
juuni-ji desu.
Q : いま なんじ ですか。
ima nan-ji desuka.
Q : What time is it now?
A : １２じ です。
juuni-ji desu.
A : It s 12 o clock.
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7. Asking and Telling Local Times
To ask local times, add a name of the location with は／wa before the basic
time asking question sentence.
Q:
[ place ]
location は いま なんじ ですか。
What time is it now @location?
wa ima nan-ji desuka.
To answer the local time, add the name of the location with は／wa before
the basic time telling sentence, however, you may omit the location with は／wa
in the answer because it s already mentioned in the question.
A : ([location ]は いま) [ local time ] です。
p lace
local time
wa ima
local
It s [local time ] (@location now).
desu
Q : ロンドンは いま なんじですか。
r on do n w a i m a n a nj i de s uk a
8:30AM
A : (ロンドンは いま) ごぜん 8じ はんです。
ro n do n w a i m a
gozen hachi-ji han desu
Q : What time is it now in London?
A : It s 8:30 AM (in London now).
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8. Asking and Telling Event/Service/Business Times
To ask an event/service/business starting time such as business hours, we add a
name of the event/service/business with は/wa before the basic time asking
question sentence, then also add から/kara(=from) before ですか/desuka .
Q:
event/service/business は なんじ から ですか。
w a nan-ji kara desuka.
What time does/will the event/service/business start from?
A : ([ p lace
event/service/business は) the starting time からです。
wa
kara desu
(It s from) the starting time .
デパート／depaato
Q : デパートは なんじから ですか。
depaato wa nanji kara desuka
A : (デパートは) 10じ からです。
juu-ji kara desu
Q : What time does the department store open?
10:00 ∼ 20:00
A : It opens from 10:00.
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9. To ask an event/service/business ending/closing time such as business hours, we add
a name of the event/service/business with は/wa before the basic time asking
question sentence, then also add まで/made(=until) before ですか/desuka
instead of . から／kara
Q:
event/service/business は なんじまで ですか。
w a nan-ji made desuka.
Until what time does/will the event/service/business close/end?
A : ([ p lace
event/service/business は) the starting time までです。
wa
made desu
(It s until) the starting time .
デパート／depaato
Q : (デパートは) なんじまで ですか。
(depaato wa) nanji made desuka
A : (デパートは) ごご８じ までです。
gogo hachi-ji made desu
Q : [Until] what time is it open?
10:00 ∼ 20:00
A : It opens till 8:00 p.m.
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10. Consequently, we can tell a whole event/service/business time by
combining both から/kara(=from) and まで/made(=until) as follows :
デパート／depaato
デパートは 10じ から ８じ までです。
depaato wa juu-ji kara hachi-ji made desu
The department store is open from 10:00 till 8:00.
10:00 ∼ 20:00
We can utilize the same way for events as :
かいぎ／kaigi
かいぎは ごご１じ から ごご２じはん までです。
kaigi wa gogo ichi-ji kara gogo ni-ji han made desu
13:00 ∼ 14:30
The meeting is from 13:00 till 14:30.
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