LinguaHours and minutes, and the three that misbehave
Hours take じ and minutes take ふん, and both follow the number directly: さんじ, にじゅっぷん. Three hours refuse the regular reading: four is よじ, seven is しちじ, nine is くじ. Minutes change in the other direction – the counter itself becomes ぷん after one, three, four, six, eight and ten. Half past is はん, added after the hour and never combined with a minute count.
| Hour | Reading | Minutes | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | よじ | 1 | いっぷん |
| 7 | しちじ | 3 | さんぷん |
| 9 | くじ | 6 | ろっぷん |
| 2 | にじ | 8 | はっぷん |
| 5 | ごじ | 10 | じゅっぷん |
Morning and afternoon come before the hour
Japan uses a twelve-hour clock in speech and a twenty-four-hour one in timetables. In speech ごぜん and ごご stand in front of the hour – ごぜんくじ, ごごさんじ – and are dropped whenever the context makes them obvious. あさ, ひる and よる can do the same job more loosely and are what you will hear between friends.
いまごごさんじじゅうごふんですIt is a quarter past three in the afternoon.
かいぎはごごよじはんからですThe meeting starts at half past four in the afternoon.
Words in this lesson
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| じ | o'clock | いまさんじです It is three o'clock now. |
| ふん | minute | じゅうごふんまってください Please wait fifteen minutes. |
| はん | half past | ろくじはんにおきます I get up at half past six. |
| ごぜん | a.m., before noon | ごぜんちゅうはいそがしいです I am busy all morning. |
| ごご | p.m., afternoon | ごごからやすみます I take the afternoon off. |
| いま | now | いまなんじですか What time is it now? |
| なんじ | what time | でんしゃはなんじにきますか What time does the train come? |
| あさ | morning | あさはコーヒーをのみます In the morning I drink coffee. |
| ひる | midday | ひるはそとでたべます At midday I eat out. |
| よる | night, evening | よるはうちにいます In the evening I am at home. |
Exercises
This lesson has 10 exercises in the app:
- multiple choice: 3
- match the pairs: 1
- fill the gap: 2
- build the sentence: 2
- translate the sentence: 1
- listen and type: 1
Try the first one
How is four o'clock read?
The answer, the other exercises, the audio and your progress are in the app – free at A0 and A1.