"

7.2 Asking and Telling the Time

This module focuses on learning how to ask and tell time in Japanese, specifically how to express tome with hours (時: じ: ji) and minutes (分: ふん／ぷん: fun/pun).

Introduction to hours and minutes: 時 and 分

To ask and tell time in Japanese, you use 時 (じ: ji) for hours of the day (o’clock) and 分 (ふん／ぷん: fun/pun) for minutes. These act as counters specific to time. To ask ‘What time is it?’ you use 何時 (なんじ: nan-ji), meaning ‘what time’.

Asking the time

To ask the time in Japanese, use the following structure:

今（いま）、何時（なんじ）ですか。

Ima, nan-ji desu ka.

What’s the time now?

 

Telling the time

To respond, use the following format:

X 時（じ）Y 分（ふん／ぷん）です。

X-ji Y-fun/pun desu.

It’s X o’clock Y minutes.

Exclamation Icon For hours of the day, or ‘o’clock’, simply add the counter 時 (じ: ji) after the number. However, for minutes, the counter 分 is pronounced ‘fun‘ or ‘pun‘ depending on the preceding number. Specifically, ‘fun‘ follows the numbers 2, 5, 7 and 9, whereas ‘pun‘ follows the numbers 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10. For example, 一分 (one minute) is read as いっぷん (ippun), instead of いちふん (ichi-fun).

Here’s a table summarising how to read time in Japanese using the counters 時 and 分:

Number Hours Minutes
1 一時 （いちじ: ichi-ji） 一分 （いっぷん: ippun）
2 二時 （にじ: ni-ji） 二分 （にふん: ni-fun）
3 三時 （さんじ: san-ji） 三分 （さんぷん: san-pun）
4 四時 （よじ: yo-ji） 四分 (よんぷん: yon-pun)
5 五時 （ごじ: go-ji） 五分 （ごふん: go-fun）
6 六時 （ろくじ: roku-ji） 六分 （ろっぷん: roppun）
7 七時 （しちじ or ななじ: shichi-ji or nana-ji） 七分 （ななふん: nana-fun）
8 八時 （はちじ: hachi-ji） 八分 （はっぷん: happun）
9 九時 （くじ: ku-ji） 九分 （きゅうふん: kyuu-fun）
10 十時 （じゅうじ: juu-ji） 十分 （じゅっぷん: juppun）

NOTE: 七時 can be read as しちじ (shichi-ji) or ななじ (nana-ji) in everyday situations, but 七分 is commonly read as ななふん (nana-fun), not しちふん (shichi-fun).

 

How to read minutes from 11 to 60 

Now, to read minutes from 11 to 60, follow the same pronunciation system, using ‘fun‘ or ‘pun‘ depending on the final number before the counter 分. For example, 11 minutes is 十一分 (じゅういっぷん: juu-ippun) and 25 minutes is 二十五分 (にじゅうごふん: ni-juu go-fun).

Here’s a table showing how to read minutes from 11 to 60 in Japanese:

Minutes Kanji Reading
11 十一分 じゅういっぷん (juu-ippun)
12 十二分 じゅうにふん (juu-ni-fun)
13 十三分 じゅうさんぷん (juu-san-pun)
14 十四分 じゅうよんぷん (juu-yon-pun)
15 十五分 じゅうごふん (juu-go-fun)
16 十六分 じゅうろっぷん (juu-roppun)
17 十七分 じゅうななふん (juu-nana-fun)
18 十八分 じゅうはっぷん (juu-happun)
19 十九分 じゅうきゅうふん (juu-kyuu-fun)
20 二十分 にじゅっぷん (juppun)
21 二十一分 にじゅういっぷん (ni-juu ippun)
25 二十五分 にじゅうごふん (ni-juu go-fun)
30 三十分 さんじゅっぷん (san-juppun)
40 四十分 よんじゅっぷん (yon-juppun)
45 四十五分 よんじゅうごふん (yon-juu go-fun)
50 五十分 ごじゅっぷん (go-juppun)
55 五十五分 ごじゅうごふん (go-juu go-fun)
60 六十分 ろくじゅっぷん (roku-juppun)

 

Two ways to read 30 minutes

Note that 30 minutes is a special case because it can be read as 三十分（さんじゅっぷん: san-juppun）or 半（はん: han）. So, 7:30 can be read as しちじさんじゅっぷん (shichi-ji san-juppun) or しちじはん (shichi-ji han).

 

Exercise 1

To reinforce your learning, explore the resource provided by Japanese Smiles. Practise by reading the numbers aloud, focusing on correct pronunciation and understanding. This exercise will help you become more fluent in expressing time in Japanese:

AM and PM

In Japanese, morning (AM) is signified as 午前 （ごぜん: gozen）and afternoon/evening (PM) as 午後 （ごご: gogo）.

午前 is used for times from midnight until just before noon, while 午後 is used for times from noon until just before midnight.

Note that these terms precede the time. This is different from English, where ‘AM’ and ‘PM’ follow the time.

Examples:

午前

7 AM

↓

午前七時 （ごぜんしちじ: gozen shichi-ji）

 

午後

4:30 PM

↓

午後四時三十分 （ごごよじさんじゅっぷん: gogo yo-ji san-juppun）

or

午後四時半 （ごごよじはん: gogo yo-ji han）

 

Exercise 2

Using 何時（なんじ）に … ますか to ask and answer ‘At what time do you …?’ 

The phrase 何時に … ますか (nan-ji ni … masu ka) is used to ask ‘At what time do [you] …?’ in Japanese.

Here, 何時 (なんじ: nan-ji) means ‘what time’, and the particle に (ni) is used to indicate the specific time an action occurs.

Examples: 

Asking:

何時に起きますか。

Nan-ji ni oki masu ka.

At what time do you wake up?


Answering:

七時に起きます。

Shichi-ji ni oki masu.

I wake up at 7 o’clock.

 

Key points

To answer 何時に … ますか questions:

  1. State the time using the hour (e.g., 七時 for ‘7 o’clock’).
  2. Follow with the particle に.
  3. Use the polite form of the verb, such as 起きます.

By combining the specific time with に and the verb, you can clearly answer questions about when actions take place. Refer to Module 6.2 for more details on using に with time references.

Adding a topic to specify the subject of a sentence

Building on the basic phrase 何時に … ますか to ask ‘At what time do/does …?’, you can also add a topic at the beginning to clarify what you’re asking about. This is especially useful when you want to know the time for a specific event or activity.

General structure

To ask: 

X は何時に…ますか。

X wa nan-ji ni … masu ka.

At what time does X …?

To answer: 

Y 時に…ます。

(X wa) Y-ji ni … masu.

(X)  … at Y o’clock.

 

Examples: 

Asking: 

イベントは何時に始まりますか。

Ibento wa nan-ji ni hajimari masu ka.

At what time does the event start?

[Audio file to be inserted]

 

NOTE: Here, イベントは specifies that the question is about the event.

Answering: 

When answering questions with a specific topic, there’s no need to repeat the topic in the response. You can simply respond with the time, followed by the verb.

 

九時に始まります。

Ku-ji ni hajimari masu.

It starts at 9 o’clock.

[Audio file to be inserted]

 

Exercise 3 

 

 

Figures

1 Exclamation Icon “Exclamation Sign Icon” (untitled) by Dave Gandy. Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC by SA 3.0.

 

References

Japanese Smiles. “Telling the Time in Japanese とけい (Tokei) 1 o’clock, 12 o’clock, 5 Minutes, 10 Minutes 60 Minutes etc.” YouTube video, 8:11. August 21, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udZxGfx5XfM.

 

Licence

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Japanese Introductory 1 Copyright © 2024 by Iori Hamada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book