Telling the time in Japanese

Level A1

Telling the time in Japanese

This lesson teaches you to ask the time in Japanese, give it, and say when something happens. Telling the time is very regular: the hour takes 時 (ji) and the minutes take 分 (fun or pun), so 6:10 is 六時十分 (rokuji juppun). Japanese has no word for "a quarter" on the clock, and words like "morning" or "p.m." come before the time, not after it. With friends you drop です and ask 今何時？; with a stranger you stay polite, as in the two conversations at the end.

Hour, minute, fifteen minutes, noon and midnight

  • 時間(じかん)hour
  • 分(ふん)minute
  • 十五分(じゅうごふん)quarter
  • 正午(しょうご)noon
  • 真夜中(まよなか)midnight

Morning, afternoon, evening and night

Asking the time: 今何時ですか？ (ima nanji desu ka?)

今何(なに)時ですか？

Telling the time: 三時です, 六時十分です

三時十分(ふん)です。

Clock times and how to read them, with the sound changes in 分

TimeIn JapaneseReading
3:00三(さん)時さんじ
3:05三(さん)時五(ご)分(ふん)さんじごふん
3:10三(さん)時十(じゅう)分(ふん)さんじじゅっぷん
3:15三(さん)時十五(じゅうご)分(ふん)さんじじゅうごふん
3:30三(さん)時半さんじはん
3:45三(さん)時四十五分(ふん)さんじよんじゅうごふん
3:50四(よん)時十(じゅう)分(ふん)前よじじゅっぷんまえ
7:00七(なな)時しちじ
9:00九(きゅう)時くじ
12:00正午(しょうご)しょうご
0:00真夜中(まよなか)の十二(じゅうに)時まよなかのじゅうにじ
19:30十九(じゅうきゅう)時三十(さんじゅう)分(ふん)じゅうくじさんじゅっぷん

Half past and to: 半 (han) and 前 (mae)

There's no word for "past": you say the hour, then the minutes, just like reading a digital clock, so ten past six is 六時十分 (rokuji juppun). Half past is 半 (han), "half", straight after 時: 七時半です (shichiji han desu).

For "to", add 前 (mae), "before", after the minutes: 五時二十分前 (goji nijuppun mae) is twenty to five. There's no word for a quarter, so a quarter past two is 二時十五分 (niji jūgofun) and a quarter to nine is 九時十五分前 (kuji jūgofun mae). Most people simply say 八時四十五分 (hachiji yonjūgofun) for 8:45.

Watch the sound of 分: it's ぷん (pun) after 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10, as in 十分 (juppun), and ふん (fun) after 2, 5, 7 and 9.

In the morning, p.m., at night: 朝, 午後 and 夜 go first

In Japanese, the part of the day comes before the time, the opposite of English "seven in the morning": 朝七時に起きます (asa shichiji ni okimasu). 午前 (gozen) and 午後 (gogo) are a.m. and p.m., and they go first too: 午後二時 (gogo niji), 2 p.m.

For the evening and night, say 夜の十一時 (yoru no jūichiji), eleven at night, with の linking the two. Without a clock time, 朝, 夜 and 今日の午後 (kyō no gogo, this afternoon) work like English "in the morning": コーヒーは朝しか飲みません. The particle に marks "at" a clock time, as in 七時に起きます; after 朝 or 今日の午後 on their own it's usually left off.

Timetables, noon and midnight: 19時30分, 正午, 真夜中

Train timetables, shop hours and TV listings in Japan use the 24-hour clock, written in digits and read as numbers: 電車は19時30分に出発します (jūkuji sanjuppun), the train leaves at 19:30. In conversation people go back to 午後七時半 or just 七時半.

正午 (shōgo) is noon on a sign or in an announcement: パン屋は正午に閉まります. In everyday talk you'll often hear 昼の十二時 (hiru no jūniji) instead. 真夜中 (mayonaka) means "the middle of the night", so for the exact time you say 真夜中の十二時, or simply 夜の十二時 (yoru no jūniji), twelve midnight.

How long: 一時間 (ichijikan) is an hour, 一時 (ichiji) is one o'clock

一時間(じかん)／十分(ふん)後

Asking a stranger in the street: すみません、今何時かわかりますか？

Two friends late for the cinema: 映画って何時に始まるの？

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