Telling the hours in Japanese
Time table, from Genki 3rd Edition
The unit of an hour is called じ (kanji: 時 / Ji) in Japanese. If you want to say a certain time, you say “number + じ / 時 (ji)”.
For example:
One o'clock = いち じ (一時) Ichi Ji
It's two o'clock = にじです (ニ時) です Ni Ji Desu
Three o'clock = さんじ (三時) San Ji
The chart below, also from Genki, illustrate from one to twelve.
＊Not only 4 (Yoji) is a irregular (it's not YonJi), but also 9 (Kuji) is not it's most common form (Kyuu). In the case of 7, you could either say Shichi (しち) Ji or Nana (なな) Ji. Both are ok, but people tend to avoid Shichi (しち) Ji because it may be confused with Ichi (いち) Ji.
＊時 (ji) is a unit and 時間 (jikan) is a counter for time. So, you use "時 (ji)" when you're telling the hours, as in "It's two and thirty right now", but use "時間 (jikan)" if you're talking about a specific time-frame, as in "It took me two hours to do that".
Now, look at the first chart again. The unit of minutes is called ふん (分 / fun). So, if you want to say "two minutes", you say にふん (二分 / nifun). But, if you want to say "one minute", you say いっぷん (一分 / ippun).
Numbers 1, 6 and 10 all use ぷん (pun) instead of fun;
Numbers 2, 5, 7 and 9 all use ふん (fun);
And numbers 3, 4 and 8 accept both forms.
For, "Three hours and two minutes", we would have さんじ にふん.
12:15 = じゅうにじ じゅうごふん || 十二時 十五分
7:15 = ななじ じゅうごふん || 七時 十五分
8:30 = はちじ はん＊ || 八時半*
*Instead of writing 30 (sanjuppun), you can have はん (Han / 半), which means "half".
6:10 = ろくじ じゅっぷん || 六時 十分
7:15 = ななじ じゅうごふん || 七時 十五分
12:50 = じゅうにじ ごじゅっぷん || 十二時 五十分
7:10 = しちじ じゅっぷん || 七時 十分
2:20 = にじ にじゅっぷん || ニ時 二十分
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
baratheonpilled
romaincrisis
titsay
izzy806
yousharknotpass
