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LearningJapanese — Text: Telling Time Part 1
Published: 2011-09-16 17:27:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 3367; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 10
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Description I highly suggest you visit these two pages before continuing on:

learningjapanese.deviantart.co…
(Teaches you how to count)

learningjapanese.deviantart.co…
(Good visual reference)

Telling time in Japanese is not too difficult, actually. It just takes practice to get used to it.

Learning how to say the hours is the easiest and first step:
いちじ (ichiji)= one o'clock
にじ (niji) = two o'clock
さんじ (sanji) = three o'clock
よじ (yoji) = four o'clock
ごじ (goji) = five o'clock
ろくじ (rokuji) = six o'clock
しちじ (shichiji) = seven o'clock
はちじ (hachiji) = eight o'clock
くじ (kuji) = nine o'clock
じゅうじ (juuji) = ten o'clock
じゅういちじ (juuichiji) = eleven o'clock
じゅうにじ (juuniji) = twelve o'clock

All it is is adding the number desired/needed then add 'ji' (time) at the end.

Practice saying those first before moving on. (Try looking at a clock and say the hours or have someone pick one at random for you.)

-MINUTES-

Minutes can get a little more tricky, especially since there are some irregular ones.
ふん (fun) is the word for 'minute'. However, it can also be pronounced as ぷん (pun) depending on the number used with it.

'Fun' works the same way as 'ji' in that the number goes before it.

いっぷん (ippun) = one minute
にふん (nifun) = two minutes
さんぷん (sanpun) = three minutes
よんぷん (yonpun) = four minutes
ごふん (gofun) = five minutes
ろっぷん (roppun) = six minutes
ななふん (nanafun) = seven minutes
はっぷん (happun) = eight minutes
きゅうふん (kyuufun) = nine minutes
じゅっぷん (juppun) = ten minutes

As you can see, there is no 'real' pattern to pronunciation, it's just another one of those things you have to memorize. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 all use 'pun', 2, 5, 7, and 9 all use 'fun'. 8 can also use 'fun' in which case it would be はちふん (hachifun). It's really personal preference for which you choose to use (I like 'pun' myself.)

What is helpful is the string of ten numbers is the same for the rest of the minutes.

じゅういっぷん (juuippun) = 11 minutes
じゅうにふん (juunifun) = 12 minutes
じゅうさんぷん (juusanpun) = 13 minutes
じゅうよんぷん (juuyonpun) = 14 minutes
じゅうごふん (juugofun) = 15 minutes
じゅうろっぷん (juuroppun) = 16 minutes
じゅうななふん (juunanafun) = 17 minutes
じゅうはっぷん (juuhappun) = 18 minutes
じゅうきゅうふん (juukyuufun) = 19 minutes
にじゅっぷん (nijuppun) = 20 minutes

Notice how which even number comes before 'fun' conjugates to the same first ten as listed above? That makes things easy The rest of the minutes continue in the same pattern.

For example:
47 minutes = よんじゅうななふん (yonjuunanafun)
24 minutes = にじゅうよんぷん (nijuuyonpun)

NOW let's combine both hours and minutes to get some precise times!

The sentence structure works like this:
x ji y fun desu.

x = the hour
y = the minute(s)

Let's try it out

3:38
3 = hour
38 = minutes

さんじ さんじゅうはっぷん です。
sanji sanjuuhappun desu.
It is 3:38.

You can also add 'ima' (now) in front of the sentence to make it:

いま、さんじ さんじゅうはっぷん です。
Ima, sanji sanjuuhappun desu.
It is now 3:38.

Feel brave enough to use kanji?
learningjapanese.deviantart.co…

いま、三時三十八ふんです。
Ima, sanji sanjuuhachifun desu.

Since I haven't gone over the kanji for 'ima' or 'fun' yet, I figured I'd leave them out for now.

Now go try out some random times! See if you can do these:
4:12, 5:18, 7:58, 5:41, etc.
Related content
Comments: 27

Diamondd-Dreams [2012-04-26 18:42:52 +0000 UTC]

Thankyou for all your helpful deviations

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Diamondd-Dreams [2012-04-26 19:09:39 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome, glad you like them

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 18:13:41 +0000 UTC]

ima wa, ni jin jyu san pun
- 2:13

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 18:26:37 +0000 UTC]

Close

Ima, ni ji juu san pun desu.
Or
Ima wa ni juu san pun desu.

You don't need the comma if you have the subject marker. Also be sure to check your spelling and don't forget the verb "desu"

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Kuritsutei In reply to LearningJapanese [2012-04-26 18:30:11 +0000 UTC]

Ok, it's just that I've seen a lot of different ways to spell the same word in Romaji, so it gets confusing sometimes

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 18:32:55 +0000 UTC]

Just another reason why I don't like romaji x'D As soon as you can, start using the kana!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Kuritsutei In reply to LearningJapanese [2012-04-26 18:36:23 +0000 UTC]

I do, but *this* laptop dosen't have japanese compatability, just English.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 18:37:58 +0000 UTC]

Have you tried using IME (Windows) or Kotoeri (MAC)?

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Kuritsutei In reply to LearningJapanese [2012-04-26 18:55:31 +0000 UTC]

Oh, that's not it. I'm on a school laptop. No downloads alowed.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 18:57:01 +0000 UTC]

It's not downloading anything. Just activating something that is already there c:

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Kuritsutei In reply to LearningJapanese [2012-04-26 19:12:31 +0000 UTC]

Hmm, thanks, but I still don't want to get in trouble with the school. I'll probably activate it on my home computer when school is out.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kuritsutei [2012-04-26 19:16:46 +0000 UTC]

That's alright c: It makes for good practice, play around with it when you get home^^

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

Kuritsutei In reply to LearningJapanese [2012-04-26 20:12:02 +0000 UTC]

Thanks

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

xxLexi16182xx [2011-12-12 20:54:08 +0000 UTC]

In 3rd grade we had a unit on Japan, so our teacher taught us numbers as on thing and we learned the kanji so i already know them, yey! Anyway, I have been trying to learn Japanese since maybe last year, and I'm just now trying to learn time @__@. I think I am learning it pretty fast though! Thank you for this!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to xxLexi16182xx [2011-12-26 16:28:18 +0000 UTC]

That's great Don't try to rush yourself, learning a language takes time. I'm happy that I'm helping you though

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

Kotaro117 [2011-09-23 02:57:31 +0000 UTC]

im being self taught on japanese. teaching myself to write katakana and speaking to my friends who are from japan every day. they love to tease me and give me 3 pages of random stuff that is all slang and waiting for me to translate and it takes forever XD

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to Kotaro117 [2011-10-17 17:30:04 +0000 UTC]

Oh gosh, I do not know slang, haha. There is a book that teaches it and I have it. I was saving it until I knew all the formalities/informalities first. This is the book I have: [link] That's wonderful that you have people you can practice with!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

HeckoX [2011-09-21 13:47:08 +0000 UTC]

Might I suggest this: [link] ?
The dynamic clock makes for a good practice tool c:

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to HeckoX [2011-09-22 00:14:26 +0000 UTC]

Awesome deviation Added it to my favorites

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

HeckoX In reply to LearningJapanese [2011-09-22 01:15:02 +0000 UTC]

Thank you c:

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to HeckoX [2011-09-23 00:44:13 +0000 UTC]

You're very welcome

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

mruki [2011-09-17 00:39:36 +0000 UTC]

Haha, reading over these makes me think back to my college japanese classes . My sensei would be horrified if I couldn't even remember how to tell time so here goes a try:

4:12
よじ じゅうにふん です。

5:18
ゴジ じゅうはっぷん です。

7:58
シチジ 五じゅうはっぷん です。

5:41
五じ よじゅういっぷん

aaaaand it's 8:19 where I am now so:
いま、 ハチジじゅうきゅうふん です。

Though I did notice a typo:
さんじ さんじゅうはっぷん です。
sanji sanjuuhappun desu.
It is 3:48.
When you translated it you mistyped 3:48 instead of 3:38.

Otherwise it was a nice lesson. I'm excited to see part two and crossing my fingers we'll see AM and PM in it. (Sorry to have a jumble of hirgana, katakana and kanji in this, it was hard to find the characters when I didn't have a Japanese keyboard enabled ).

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to mruki [2011-09-17 02:01:46 +0000 UTC]

Really? How many years did you take? Are you fluent?

Looks good though I believe forty is yonjuu not yojuu.

Oopsie, thank you for pointing out my typo! I will fix that now xD
Part two will include AM and PM as well as other things Hopefully I'll have time to type it up soon xP
No worries about mixing it up. You can Google search and see how to enable it for your keyboard depending on what OS you use c:

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

mruki In reply to LearningJapanese [2011-09-17 02:49:35 +0000 UTC]

I took two years and have been reading up on it since, mostly for the kanji. I'm certainly not fluent but I know a few things . I can speak enough to not get lost in Japan though . I have the Japanese hirigana and katakana on my laptop at home (I switched the physical keys for hirigana ones as well XD) but I commented on my work computer so I couldn't alter it.

And ah thank you so much for catching my typo too

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

LearningJapanese In reply to mruki [2011-09-19 23:04:37 +0000 UTC]

Oh, awesome! I'm in my third semester now It's a lot of fun but it requires a lot of attention and practice xD
That's cool that you switched the keys xD Seems like it'd be fun tripping up friends when they want to borrow your laptop, haha.
No problem, we all make mistakes

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

mruki In reply to LearningJapanese [2011-09-19 23:18:34 +0000 UTC]

Haha it is, especially when family tries to borrow it. According to my mother I have changed my laptop to squiggles.

And nice, third semester. It's great that you're doing this while learning. They say the best way to learn is to teach others .

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LearningJapanese In reply to mruki [2011-09-19 23:20:48 +0000 UTC]

Hahaha, squiggles? That's hilarious xD Makes me want to change mine but then I'd be too biased towards Japanese when I eventually want to learn Russian and German as well. (Might have to put little stickers as to where the Russian letters are since they don't correspond with our keyboards!)

This is surprisingly helpful, I'm happy I did it. Forces myself to learn and helps others at the same time. It also can be fun^^

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