How can I say the time in Japanese?
How to ask about the time
The most common way to ask about the current time in Japanese is made with a question word
何時
nanji
What time
and also with the word 今 (ima : now) such as :
今、何時ですか。
Ima nanji desu Ka.
What time is it now?
How to answer
When asked by
今、何時ですか。
Ima nanji desu Ka.
What time is it now?
We can answer it by giving only the necessary information such as :
８時です。
hachi ji desu.
It’s 8 o’clock.
12-hour or 24-hour clock time ?
In Japan, both 12-hour and 24-hour clock time are used.
We don’t have much to say about 24-hour time because it’s clear whether we’re in the morning or afternoon.
But when we use 12-hour clock time, because it’s not clear whether we’re talking about the time in am or pm, there are 2 cases to think about.
- Depending on the context
- Adding the word, am or pm
Depending on the context
When we say
今、８時です。
ima hachi ji desu.
It’s 8 o’clock now.
And the utterance was made in the afternoon, it means “8 pm”. And vice versa.
Adding the am or pm word
We can also simply add the am/pm to make things clearer in Japanese,
午前
gozen
am
午後
gogo
pm
For example,
今、午前８時です。
ima gozen hachi ji desu.
It’s 8 am.
今、午後８時です。
ima gogo hachi ji desu.
It’s 8 pm.
The Hour in Japanese
When talking about the hour, we can use
Number + 時 (ji)
Number o’clock
Japanese number :
It looks simple but there are 5 numbers to pay attention to : 4, 7, 9, 17 and 0 in terms of their sound.
４時
yo ji
4 o’clock
７時
shichi ji
7 o’clock
９時
ku ji
9 o’clock
１７時
juu shichi ji or juu nana ji
5 pm
And the tricky thing is
０時
reiji
12 am
So,
（午前）０時
(gozen) rei ji
（午後）１２時
(gogo) juu ni ji
２４時
ni juu yo ji
= 12 am (midnight)
*Note :
（午後）１２時
(gogo) juu ni ji
is often avoided to say because sometimes it makes confusion.
So,
夜の１２時
yoru no juu ni ji
12 o’clock in the night
is often used.
And just like “noon” in English, there is also a special word for it in Japanese.
正午
syougo
noon
The question about the hour can be done by
何時
nanji
What hour
Which is the same question word with the one to ask about the time generally.
For example,
今、何時ですか。
ima nanji desu ka.
What time is it now?
午後９時です。
gogo ku ji desu.
It’s 9 pm.
You can find the cheat sheet below.
The minute in Japanese
When talking about the time in terms of “minute” in Japanese, we combine a number and 分.
This is a bit confusing because both the number and 分 modify its sound in the given context :
分
hun
pun
ppun
minute
The basic sound of 分 is “hun”, so we need to check which number cause “hun” to be pronounced as “pun” and “ppun” and that is also the numbers that change their sound in the most of the case.
pun : 3, 4 and what minute
３分
san pun
3 minutes
４分
yon pun
4 minutes
何分
nan pun
What minute
ppun : 1, 6, 8 and X0 (10, 20, etc…)
１分
i ppun
1 minute
６分
ro ppun
6 minutes
８分
ha ppun
8 minutes
５０分
go ju ppun
50 minutes
One special word for the minute is
半
han
Half an hour
And as we’ve just seen, to ask about the minute (for example, if you know already the hour but you want to be precise about the minute), we use
何分
nan pun
What minute
For example,
今、何分ですか。
ima nan pun desu ka.
What minute is it now?
*Under the condition in which we already know about the actual time in terms of hour.
３分です。
san pun desu.
It’s X-3. (Where X stands for a particular hour).
Of course we can ask by
今、何時ですか。
ima nanji desu ka.
What time is it now?
And answer like this :
９時４０分です。
ku ji yon ju ppun desu.
It’s nine-fourty.
The Second in Japanese
We use 秒 (byou) to express the second by combining the number and there is no sound change. So,
４３秒
yon juu san byou
43 seconds
And to ask about the second, the question word,
何秒
nan byou
What second
is used (for example If we want to know the prices time after knowing the hour and the minute) like this :
何秒ですか。
nan byou desu ka.
What second is it?
*Under the condition in which we already know about the actual time in terms of hour and minute.
３８秒です。
san juu hachi byou desu.
It’s X-Y 38 seconds.(Where X is a specific hour and Y is a minute).
And there is one thing to note about the second,
We cannot use 秒 expression with 半 (han : half an hour). So
Not good :
４時半２５秒です。
Yo ji han ni juu go byou desu.
Good :
４時３０分２５秒です。
Yo ji san ju ppu ni juu go byou desu.
It’s four-thirty twenty-five seconds.
Currenttime of a specific X?
When you want to ask about the time of something specific, like the current time in Japan when you’re in the UK,
日本は、今何時ですか。
nihon wa ima nan ji desu ka.
What time is it now in Japan?
is an option to use.
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