Japanese word for time

Japanese word for time Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 月日 Meanings : time Kana reading: つきひ Romaji reading (pronunciation): tsukihi Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 刻 Meanings : time Kana reading: こく Romaji reading (pronunciation): koku Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 頃 Meanings : time Kana reading: ころ Romaji reading (pronunciation): koro Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 頃 Meanings : time Kana reading: ごろ Romaji reading (pronunciation): goro Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 歳月 Meanings : time Kana reading: さいげつ Romaji reading (pronunciation): saigetsu Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 時 Meanings : time Kana reading: とき Romaji reading (pronunciation): toki Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 時間 Meanings : time Kana reading: じかん Romaji reading (pronunciation): jikan Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 時期 Meanings : time Kana reading: じき Romaji reading (pronunciation): jiki Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 手間 Meanings : time Kana reading: てま Romaji reading (pronunciation): tema Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 度 Meanings : time Kana reading: たび Romaji reading (pronunciation): tabi Here is how to say time in japanese: Japanese symbols : 拍子 Meanings : time Kana reading: ひょうし Romaji reading (pronunciation): hyoushi

Back in the day, everyone wore a watch to keep track of the time. Nowadays people just check their smartphone when they need to know. But what if you don’t have either of those on you? You’ll need to know how to say “what time is it” in Japanese.

In addition to that, you’ll need to know how to understand the answer, which is why I’ll provide some “time vocabulary” in today’s lesson. Be sure to check it out and become familiar with the new words.

How To Say “What Time Is It” In Japanese

So there you are in Japan without a watch and your phone has died. You need to know what time it is so that you can figure out what you need to do next on your busy schedule.

You flag down the nearest Japanese person, apologize for interrupting their day, and then ask them the following question:

• 今、何時ですか？
• ima, nan ji desu ka?
• What time is it right now?

Let’s break this phrase down word by word so that you can understand every part of it.

First we start off with 今 (ima) which means “now; at the present time” in Japanese. Then we continue with 何時 (nanji) which means “what time.” Finally, we finish the question off with the “is it” part of the phrase with ですか (desu ka).

This phrase will serve you well so be sure to try it out a couple of times to help remember it.

How To Say “At What Time” In Japanese

What do you do if someone invites you to a party on Friday, but you’re not sure if you can make it because you’ve got something else going on that same day?

Well perhaps you can actually make them both depending on what time the party begins and ends at.

In this situation, you’ll need to know how to ask the other person what time the party starts at so that you can figure out if you can make it or not. Here’s how to ask “at what time” in Japanese:

• 何時に？
• nan ji ni?
• At what time?

That’s a pretty good phrase that you can use, but if you wanted to be more specific and ask about the starting time, then this next one might be more helpful.

• 何時に始まりますか？
• nanji ni hajimarimasu ka?
• What time does it start at?

Let’s say that it starts at the same time as your prior engagement, so going at the beginning is out of the question. However, If the party continues on for long enough, you’re pretty sure that you can stop by before it’s over.

To figure this out though, you need to ask what time it ends at.

• 何時に終わりますか？
• nanji ni owarimasu ka?
• What time does it end at?

If you find out that you can make it to the party, tell your friend “yes, you’ll see them there!”

These phrases aren’t just limited to parties. They can really be used for any event that has a start and end time. So things such as business meetings, birthday parties, weddings, and so on.

However, in order to understand the answers that you receive from these questions, you’ll need to know several key Japanese words which we will go over next.

How To Say “O’Clock” In Japanese

In English when we talk about time, we tend to use the word “O’Clock” which is an abbreviation for “of the clock” in reference to what time something occurs at.

For example, “the party starts at two o’clock” is one way that you could say it. Another way is you could just say “the party is at two.”

However, in Japanese you can’t drop the “o’clock” part as it is an essential part of the phrase. The Japanese equivalent is the word 時 (ji) which is a suffix that attaches to the number.

Here’s a complete list of hours 1-12 in Japanese and their pronunciations:

• 一時 (ichi ji) = one o’clock
• 二時 (ni ji) = two o’clock
• 三時 (san ji) = three o’clock
• 四時 (yo ji) = four o’clock
• 五時 (go ji) = five o’clock
• 六時 (roku ji) = six o’clock
• 七時 (shichi ji) = seven o’clock
• 八時 (hachi ji) = eight o’clock
• 九時 (ku ji) = nine o’clock
• 十時 (jū ji) = ten o’clock
• 十一時 (jū ichi ji) = eleven o’clock
• 十二時 (jū ni ji) = twelve o’clock

Now, there are a couple of things I want to point out about this list.

The first thing is that you can replace each of the kanji numbers in the above list with their Arabic numeral counterparts. For example, you can write 一時 as１時 instead.

In fact, it’s probably more common to see time in Japanese represented using Arabic numerals rather than kanji.

The second thing is that the numbers 4 and 9 have special readings when referring to time. You probably caught it when reading that list, but just to emphasize the point ４時 is yo ji and ９時 is ku ji.

The last thing is that you’ll probably want to know the Japanese words for “AM” and “PM” so that you know which half of the day it is.

The Japanese word 午前 (gozen) is used for AM and the Japanese word 午後 (gogo) is used for PM. The way to remember the difference is to understand each kanji’s individual meaning.

• 午 = noon
• 前 = before
• 後 = after

So we can see that 午前 means “before noon” and 午後 means “after noon” which is more or less the same way we do things in English.

Where things get a little different is the placement of these words. In Japanese, they appear before the time, whereas in English they come after.

I’ll give you two examples and you should be good to go from there.

• 午前6時 (gozen roku ji) = 6AM
• 午後3時 (gogo san ji) = 3PM

The last thing to note is that it is common in Japanese for people to refer to 12:00 as 0:00. What this means is that instead of saying 12時 as jū ni ji they will instead say 0時 as reiji.

Japanese Word For Minutes

We’ve talked about time and the hours, but what if something falls in between? We must talk about minutes in order to get the timing exact.

There are basically two ways to tackle this problem. The first one is to say the exact time, such as 12:38. The other way is to go by quarters (12:15, 12:30, 12:45).

Let’s go over both of them now.

The Japanese word for minute is 分 (fun) and it attaches to the end of the number. So 15 minutes is 15分 (jū go fun).

In order to say a full time of day like 2:56 you would structure it as 2時56分 (ni ji go jū roppun).

Two things you will notice from that last example are that the full hour metric (2時) comes first and then then minute metric follows afterwards (56分).

The other thing you’ll notice is that the reading for 分 changed from its normal (fun) to (ppun) in the example.

This is because 分 is one of those Japanese words whose reading changes depending on which number precedes it. Here is a list of numbers 1-10 and all of their readings.

• 1分 (ippun)
• 2分 (ni fun)
• 3分 (san pun)
• 4分 (yon pun)
• 5分 (go fun)
• 6分 (roppun)
• 7分 (nana fun)
• 8分 (happun)
• 9分 (kyū fun)
• 10分 (juppun)

The reading of 分 only depends on the number that comes right before it, so 11分 is read as jū ippun and it takes the phonetic change of 1分 (ippun) while keeping the normal reading of the number 10 (jū).

This might seem like a lot to take in all at once, so a better strategy might be to go by quarters in reference to time.

This will require learning only three new words:

1. すぎ (sugi) = after
2. 半 (han) = half
3. まえ (mae) = before

Put すぎ and まえ after 分 like in the following examples.

• 今、5時15分すぎです。
• ima, go ji jū go fun sugi desu.
• It’s a quarter past five now.

—

• 今、5時15分まえです。
• ima, go ji jū go fun mae desu.
• It’s a quarter to five now.

Put 半 after 時 just like below.

• 今、５時半です。
• ima, go ji han desu.
• It’s five thirty right now.

The last thing to note is that you will sometimes see すぎ written in kanji as 過ぎ and you will sometimes see まえ written in kanji as 前 for these time expressions.

Also, it’s more common to read something like 3:30 as san ji han rather than san ji san juppun since it’s easier to say “half” in Japanese than it is “thirty minutes.”

It’s Time To End Today’s Lesson

That’s all there is to cover today. If you’ve got any questions or comments that you want to leave, please be sure to do so in the section below.

Or if you’re wondering where to go next, you can check out the various categories in this blog by clicking on the menu button in the top left corner.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!

Telling time is one of the most essential aspects of everyday life. Learning how to tell time in Japanese will help you improve your basic Japanese language skills. Whether you’re checking the time for transportation or making an appointment, knowing how to say time in Japanese will help you when visiting Japan.

Telling time in Japanese is quite simple and easy to understand. Unlike in English, when expressing time in Japanese, the words which indicate the hour and minute are always added next to the numbers (e.g. 3:12 or three twelve = 時 (3ji) 分 (12fun). Thus, even without context or a sentence, you’ll easily understand that these phrases indicate time in Japanese.

In this article, we introduce the basic vocabulary and phrases for telling time in Japanese. Let’s get started! 

Table of Contents

1. How to Ask for the Time
2. Telling Time in Japanese: Hours
3. Telling Time in Japanese: Minutes
4. The Hours Divided into Minutes
5. General Time Reference of the Day
6. Adverbs of Time in Japanese
7. Time Proverbs and Sayings
8. Conclusion: How JapanesePod101 Can Help You Learn More Japanese

1. How to Ask for the Time

Here’s a list of the most typical phrases for asking about time in Japanese.

1- What time is it now? 

Japanese: 今何時ですか。

Reading: Ima nan-ji desu ka. 

• すみません、今何時ですか。

Sumimasen, ima nan-ji desu ka. 

Excuse me, what time is it now?

2- Do you know the time now? 

Japanese: 今何時かわかりますか。

Reading: Ima nan-ji ka wakarimasu ka. 

• ちょっといいですか、今何時かわかりますか。

Chotto ii desu ka, ima nan-ji ka wakarimasu ka.

Can I talk to you a bit? Do you know the time now?

3- What time is the [e.g. meeting]? 

Japanese: [会議] は何時ですか。

Reading: [Kaigi] wa nan-ji desu ka.

• 田中さん、到着は何時ですか。

Tanaka-san, tōchaku wa nan-ji desu ka.

Mr. (Ms.) Tanaka, what time is the arrival?

4- What time do we meet up? 

Japanese: 何時に集合ですか。

Reading: Nan-ji ni shūgō desu ka.

• すみません、7月10日は何時に集合ですか。

Sumimasen, shichi-gatsu tōka wa nan-ji ni shūgō desu ka.

Excuse me, what time do we meet up on July 10?

To learn dates in Japanese, please visit our Reading Dates in Japanese article.

Japanese people are famous for being on time.

2. Telling Time in Japanese: Hours

When speaking, the twelve-hour clock is more commonly used; when written, either the twelve-hour clock or the twenty-four-hour clock is used for telling time in Japanese.

When using the twelve-hour clock, add 午前 (gozen) meaning “a.m.” or 午後 (gogo) meaning “p.m.” to clarify.

1- The Twelve-Hour Clock in Japanese

Add 時 (ji), meaning “hour” or “o’clock,” after the Japanese numbers. Keep in mind that Arabic numbers are commonly used.

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
0 o’clock	零時	れいじ	rei-ji
1 o’clock	一時	いちじ	ichi-ji
2 o’clock	二時	にじ	ni-ji
3 o’clock	三時	さんじ	san-ji
4 o’clock	四時	よじ	yo-ji
5 o’clock	五時	ごじ	go-ji
6 o’clock	六時	ろくじ	roku-ji
7 o’clock	七時	しちじ	shichi-ji
8 o’clock	八時	はちじ	hachi-ji
9 o’clock	九時	くじ	ku-ji
10 o’clock	十時	じゅうじ	jū-ji
11 o’clock	十一時	じゅういちじ	jū ichi-ji
12 o’clock	十二時	じゅうにじ	jū ni-ji

Please visit our Japanese Numbers article and Numbers page on JapanesePod101 to learn how to read numbers in Japanese.

2- Examples

• 昼食の時間は午後１時です。

Chūshoku no jikan wa gogo ichi-ji desu. 

Lunch time is at one o’clock p.m.

• 会議は10時からですか。

Kaigi wa jū-ji kara desu ka.   

Is the meeting at ten o’clock?

• 明日の朝7時に来てください。

Ashita no asa shichi-ji ni kite kudasai.

Please come at seven o’clock tomorrow morning.

Toki wa kane nari (Time is money).

3. Telling Time in Japanese: Minutes

1- Minutes in Japanese

Unlike in English, 分  (fun) or (pun) meaning “minute” is always added after the numbers when telling minutes in Japanese. 

• “Minute(s)” in Japanese is 分 and it’s pronounced either fun or pun depending on which number comes before 分.

• Minutes are usually written with Arabic numbers rather than Kanji.

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
1 minute	一分	いっぷん	ippun
2 minutes	二分	にふん	ni-fun
3 minutes	三分	さんぷん	san-pun
4 minutes	四分	よんふん	yon-fun
5 minutes	五分	ごふん	go-fun
6 minutes	六分	ろっぷん	roppun
7 minutes	七分	ななふん	nana-fun
8 minutes	八分	はっぷん	happun
9 minutes	九分	きゅうふん	kyū-fun
10 minutes	十分	じゅっぷん	juppun
20 minutes	二十分	にじゅっぷん	ni-juppun
30 minutes	三十分	さんじゅっぷん	san-juppun
40 minutes	四十分	よんじゅっぷん	yon-juppun
50 minutes	五十分	ごじゅっぷん	go-juppun

2- Examples

• 地震は朝9時24分に起きました。

Jishin wa asa ku-ji ni-jū yon-fun ni okimashita. 

The earthquake occurred at 9:24 in the morning.

• 次の電車は3時47分に来ます。

Tsugi no densha wa san-ji yon-jū nana-fun ni kimasu.     

The next train comes at 3:47.

• 今の時間は午後6時18分です。

Ima no jikan wa gogo roku-ji jū happun desu.

The current time is 6:18 p.m.

It is jū-ji jū ippun (10:11) in Japanese.

4. The Hours Divided into Minutes

Telling time with minutes in Japanese is quite simple and there are no special terms or phrases to express certain groups of minutes, except for 半 (han) meaning “half.” On the other hand, English has more specific expressions, such as “quarter,” “XX past two (XX minutes after two o’clock),” and “XX to seven (XX minutes before seven o’clock).” 

• To express “thirty minutes past XX o’clock” in Japanese, just add 半 (han), meaning “half,” after “number + 時 (ji).”

• There’s no particular word for “quarter” when telling time in Japanese. It‘s simply “fifteen minutes”: 15分 (jū go-fun).

• “Five past six,” or 6:05, is 6時5分 (roku-ji go-fun) in Japanese.

• “Ten to seven” is 7時10分前 (shichi-ji juppun mae) in Japanese, which literally means “Ten minutes before seven o’clock.”

 Examples

• 飛行機は朝8時半に出発します。

Hikōki wa asa hachi-ji han ni shuppatsu shimasu. 

The airplane departs at 8:30 in the morning.

• 明日の会議は3時15分前に来てください。

Ashita no kaigi wa san-ji jū go-fun mae ni kite kudasai.     

Please come to tomorrow’s meeting fifteen minutes before three o’clock.

• 今の時間は9時10分前です。

Ima no jikan wa ku-ji juppun mae desu.

The current time is ten minutes before nine o’clock.

• あの学校は朝6時半に開きます。

Ano gakkō wa asa roku-ji han ni akimasu.

That school opens at 6:30 in the morning.

5. General Time Reference of the Day

What if you want to give a nonspecific or approximate time in Japanese? Here’s some basic vocabulary for describing time in Japanese based on the general time of day.

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
AM	午前	ごぜん	gozen
PM	午後	ごご	gogo
morning	朝	あさ	asa
early morning	早朝	そうちょう	sōchō
sunrise	日の出	ひので	hinode
noon	正午	しょうご	shōgo
midday	日中	にっちゅう	nicchū
early evening	夕方	ゆうがた	yūgata
sunset	日没	にちぼつ	nichibotsu
evening / night	夜	よる	yoru
midnight	深夜	しんや	shin’ya

The sunset time in summer is around seven o’clock p.m. in Japan.

 Examples

• 夏の日の出は早朝の4時半です。

Natsu no hinode wa sōchō no yo-ji han desu. 

The sunrise in summer is at 4:30 in the early morning.

• 明日の夜8時に夕食を食べましょう。

Ashita no yoru hachi-ji ni yūshoku o tabemashō.     

Let’s have dinner at eight o’clock tomorrow evening.

• 私の飛行機は深夜12時3分に出発します。

Watashi no hikōki wa shin’ya jū ni-ji san-pun ni shuppatsu shimasu.

My flight departs at 12:03, at midnight.

• 私は今日正午から夕方まで忙しいです。

Watashi wa kyō shōgo kara yūgata made isogashii desu.

I’m busy from noon to early evening today.

6. Adverbs of Time in Japanese

You can create more-detailed and specific time-related expression by using time adverbs. Japanese adverbs of time include:

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
right now	今すぐ	いますぐ	ima sugu
before	前	まえ	mae
after	後	あと/ご	ato/go
soon	ー	もうすぐ	mō sugu
soon	ー	ほとんど	hotondo
around	頃	ころ/ごろ	koro/goro
about	約	やく	yaku
currently	現在	げんざい	genzai
meanwhile	その間に	そのあいだに	sono aida ni
at the same time	同時に	どうじに	dōji ni
at the same time	ー	いつでも	itsu demo
as soon as possible	出来るだけ早く	できるだけはやく	dekirudake hayaku
in a while	間もなく/しばらく	まもなく/しばらく	mamonaku/shibaraku
for a long time	長い間	ながいあいだ	nagai aida

 Examples

• 今すぐ来きてください。会議は15分後に始まります。

Ima sugu kite kudasai. Kaigi wa jū go-fun go ni hajimarimasu.      

Please come right now. The meeting is starting after fifteen minutes.

• 同時に、別のパーティーが午後7時半から始まります。

Dōji ni, betsu no pātī ga gogo shichi-ji han kara hajimarimasu.     

At the same time, another party will start at 7:30 p.m.

• 私は午前8時から長い間待っています。出来るだけ早くここへ来てください。

Watashi wa gozen hachi-ji kara nagai aida matte imasu. Dekirudake hayaku koko e kite kudasai.

I have been waiting for a long time, since 8 o’clock a.m. Come here as soon as possible.

• 今は午後2時58分で、もうすぐ3時になります。まもなく電車が来ます。

Ima wa gogo ni-ji go-jū happun de, mō sugu san-ji ni narimasu. Mamonaku densha ga kimasu.

It is 2:58 p.m. and it’s going to be 3:00 soon. The train comes in a while.

Japanese trains are very punctual.

7. Time Proverbs and Sayings

When talking about time in Japanese culture, there are many ことわざ (kotowaza) and 慣用句 (kan’yōku), or “proverbs” and “sayings” regarding time in Japanese. Here are some of the most famous proverbs.

• Time is money.

Japanese: 時は金なり

Reading: Toki wa kane nari

Meaning: It literally translates to “time is money,” and it means that time is as precious as money.

遅れないように! 「時は金なり」ですよ。

Okurenai yō ni! “Toki wa kane nari” desu yo.

Don’t be late! Time is money.

• Time flies.

Japanese: 光陰矢のごとし

Reading: Kōin ya no gotoshi

Meaning: It literally translates to “time is like an arrow,” meaning that time flies fast, like an arrow. The word 光陰 (Kōin) comes from  漢文 (Kanbun), an old Chinese word which denotes “light and shade,” meaning “time.” Thus, time goes by with days and nights.

前回会った時から既に5年経ちました。「光陰矢のごとし」ですね。

Zenkai atta toki kara sude ni go-nen tachimashita. “Kōin ya no gotoshi” desu ne.

Five years have already passed since we last met. Time flies, doesn’t it?

• Time and tide wait for no man.

Japanese: 歳月人を待たず

Reading: Saigetsu hito o matazu

Meaning: It literally translates to “years and months do not wait for man,” meaning that time goes by constantly without heeding one’s circumstances. It indicates that people shouldn’t waste time and should instead make each day count.

やるべき事ややりたい事は今すぐやりましょう。「歳月人を待たず」ですよ！

Yarubeki koto ya yaritai koto wa ima sugu yarimashō. ”Saigetsu hito o matazu” desu yo!

Do right now what you should do and what you want to do. It’s “time and tide wait for no man!”

• Each day is like a thousand years.

Japanese: 一日千秋

Reading: Ichijitsu senshū 

Meaning: It literally translates to “one day is like a thousand autumns.” It means that one can hardly wait for something because it feels very far in the future, as if one day is like a thousand years (autumn comes a thousand times). 秋 (aki/shū) means “autumn,” but it also can mean “time” as a metaphor. It’s said that autumn is the time for harvest, and ancient people realized that a year had passed when autumn came.

彼女は来月行く予定のコンサートを一日千秋の思いで待っています。

Kanojo wa raigetsu iku yotei no konsāto o ichijitsu senshū no omoi de matte imasu.

She’s waiting for the concert she’s going to next month with the feeling that each day is like a thousand years.

8. Conclusion: How JapanesePod101 Can Help You Learn More Japanese

In this article, we introduced how to tell time in Japanese, including the basic vocabulary and phrases, such as the different units of time in Japanese. Now you can ask for the time and tell time in Japanese whenever you make an appointment or check times for your travels.

I hope you’ll enjoy meeting friends and getting around in Japan; make sure you’re on time when meeting them! 

Are there any time-related words in Japanese you still want to know? Let us know in the comments! 

If you would like to learn more about the Japanese language and other useful Japanese phrases, you’ll find a lot of helpful content on JapanesePod101.com. We provide a variety of free lessons for you to improve your Japanese language skills. Here’s some more information about numbers and time in Japanese with audio: Talking about Time, Numbers, and Kanji for Numbers and Counters.

 To learn how to make conversation in Japanese, check out Top 15 Questions You Should Know for Conversations and Top 10 Conversational Phrases. Phrases You Need at the Bus or Train Station and Trains are also useful if you plan on getting around Japan with public transportation.

There’s so much more! Be a fast learner and enjoy studying Japanese at JapanesePod101.com!

Time expressions are incredibly useful in any language. Sometimes, even if you can’t say much else, the ability to refer to different points in time can make a world of difference.

In this article, we’ll go over the basics of how to specify different points in time in Japanese, including the most important part – how to use these expressions in a sentence.

Before we get started, however, we need to be clear about one thing…

Expressions of time are often lumped together into a single group, but the reality is there are different types of time expressions. The main three are:

• Timing = when something happens
• Frequency = how often something happens
• Period/duration = how long something happens for

In this article, we will be focusing on the first one – timing.

(For a detailed explanation of all three, with tons of examples, check out chapter 6 of my book).

Where time expressions fit into a sentence

This is a topic where it makes a lot of sense to start at the end and work backwards. The reason for this is because there are, broadly speaking, two types of time expressions, and what differentiates them is how we use them in a sentence.

First, let’s see where time words fit into the overall picture, using this diagram from my Sentence Structure Cheat Sheet:

As the diagram shows, one of the places “Time” appears is in the ‘Other information’ section. Generally speaking, information appearing in the ‘Other Information’ section can be included in a sentence in any order – as long as we use the right particles.

What’s more, unlike most other key elements in basic Japanese sentences, time expressions also often appear before the topic. (Others can too in certain cases, but it’s less common).

This basically means that time expressions can appear anywhere in a Japanese sentence, as long as it’s before the verb.

First, let’s see a couple of examples:

In the first example, we have the time expression before the topic, and in the second, it comes after the topic [+waは]. We could have easily changed this order, but again, that’s something we’ll worry about a bit later.

First, we need to address the other major elephant in the room that these two examples highlight – when do we need to include the particle “ni”「に」?

Basically, there are two types of words or phrases that describe points in time, and whether or not “ni”「に」 is needed depends on which category a given time phrase belongs to.

Let’s take a close look at that now, and put any lingering confusion about this topic well and truly behind us.

Types of time phrases (and deciding which time phrases need “ni”)

Broadly speaking, we can divide words that describe timing into two types:

1. Time words that describe a point in time relative to “now”
2. Time words that rely on context for specificity

The reason we want to understand what these two groups mean is pretty simple. When used in a sentence:

1. Relative-to-now time phrases should not be followed by “ni”「に」
2. Context-dependent time phrases should be followed by “ni”「に」

So, let’s see what these two groups really are. We’ll use English examples in most of our explanations here since a) that’s easier, and b) this concept applies to both English and Japanese.

Time words relative to “now”

Words in this category describe points in time based on when they are/were relative to the moment when they are said.

“Now” itself is the obvious one. If I say “now” at 2pm on Friday, it means 2pm on Friday, but if I say it at 5pm on Saturday, it means 5pm on Saturday. Obviously.

The exact point in time it refers to changes according to when I say it.

The same is true for a word like “tomorrow”. It means the day after the current one, so depending on when the current day is – when “now” is – the exact timing of “tomorrow” varies.

In English, words in this category do not need one of the prepositions of time – in, on, at – when used in a sentence. For example, we wouldn’t say “at now” or “on tomorrow”.

In Japanese, words in this category do not need the particle “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence. Here are some of the most common ones:

Now	ima今いま
Today	kyō今日きょう
Yesterday	kinō昨日きのう
Tomorrow	ashita明日あした
This morning	kesa今朝けさ
Tonight	kon’ya今夜こんや
This week	konshū今週こんしゅう
Last week	senshū先週せんしゅう
Next week	raishū来週らいしゅう
This month	kongetsu今月こんげつ
Last month	sengetsu先月せんげつ
Next month	raigetsu来月らいげつ
This year	kotoshi今年ことし
Last year	kyonen去年きょねん
Next year	rainen来年らいねん

Notice that all of them refer to a specific point or span of time that will change as time progresses.

Time words that depend on context for specificity

Words of this type do not depend exclusively on when “now” is, but rather on the context within which they are used. The reason for this is because these time units are repeating.

For example, the word “Tuesday” could be used to describe exactly 1/7^th of all days that have ever been or ever will be. There have been and will be many, many Tuesdays, so if we want to use the word “Tuesday” in a sentence, we need to give it context in order to know which Tuesday we are referring to.

In English, words like this need a time preposition – in, on or at – to be used in a sentence. In the case of “Tuesday”, that would be “on”, while for times we use “at” (eg. at 6 o’clock) and for months we use “in” (eg. in March).

In Japanese, time words that depend on context need to be followed by the particle “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence.

The particle does get omitted sometimes colloquially, but for a sentence to be grammatically correct and complete, it should be included.

Now, in both English and Japanese, we also need to provide sufficient context, but how do we do that?

One way, of course, is to say something like “on Tuesday the 5^th of November 2019”. The date gives us the context we need in order to understand exactly which Tuesday we’re talking about.

Usually, however, it’s much easier than that. Much of the time, the context needed is actually implied to be “now”, such as in this example:

In both languages, it is implied here that the Tuesday being referred to is the most recent one. Now, yes, this is relative to now, but consider this similar example:

The time expression…

…is identical to the previous example, but the Tuesday being referred to is different. So how do we know which Tuesday it is?

Context.

To be clear, there are two “pieces” of context in these examples:

• “On Tuesday”/“kayōbi ni”「火曜日かようびに」　lacks more detail other than that it is a Tuesday, and this virtually always means “on the nearest Tuesday to now”. The only time it doesn’t is when there is – you guessed it – more context provided.
• The verb tense – play/shimasuします vs played/shimashitaしました – tells us if it is the nearest Tuesday in the future or past.

Both of these pieces of information are necessary to understand which Tuesday is being referred to.

By contrast, if we just said, “tomorrow”, then even if we used the wrong verb tense, we would know that the golfing is happening on the day after the current one. We don’t need any more context than that.

In fact, you could spontaneously walk up to someone in the street and say “Tomorrow!”, and they would immediately know what day you are talking about. (Please try this and report back.)

Another way to describe context-dependent time phrases would be to say that the points in time they refer to do not shift as time progresses.

For example, if we are talking about a specific Tuesday, it doesn’t matter when we say it – it will start and end at the same time regardless of whether we talk about it now, tomorrow, or five years into the future. We just have to make sure we provide enough context for it to be clear which Tuesday we are referring to.

This is clearly not the case with words like “tomorrow”, however, as the day we call “tomorrow” will start and end at a different time each day.

This helps explain why, for example, we need to use the particle “ni”「に」 with years. Here’s an example:

We generally need to include “ni”「に」 after the year for this to be grammatically correct. Either rule can explain why:

• The year 2012 doesn’t shift as time passes, so this make sense.
• It’s less obvious how this is dependent on context, though that rule can still be applied. Put simply, 2012 in this case refers to 2012 AD on the Gregorian calendar – not 2012 BC, or 2012 on some other calendar. But how do we know this for sure? Because in the context of the world we live in, it is extremely unlikely to be anything else – at least, not without… more context!

So with that, the main time expressions that do need to be followed by “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence include:

• The time of day
• The days of the week
• The days of the month
• The months of the year
• Seasons
• Years
• A few other words such as, “morning”, “afternoon”, “evening” and “night”

Notice that they are all repeating, context-dependent expressions of time that do not shift as time progresses.

Without going into too much detail, here is how we express each of these:

Time of day

The time of day is expressed as follows:

[Number of the hour] + ji時じ + [Number of minutes] + fun分ふん

Here’s an example:

Please note, however, that the pronunciation of the minutes, “fun”「ふん」, is changed to “pun”「ぷん」 for certain numbers.

If there are no minutes, the time phrase just ends with “ji”「時じ」, for example, 11 o’clock would be simply “jūichi ji”「１１じゅういち時じ」.

Also, __:30 can be expressed as “half-past” by substituting “han”「半はん」 in place of the minutes, so 11:30, for example, can be expresses as “jūichi ji han”「１１じゅういち時じ半はん」.

Days of the month

The first ten days of the month, plus the 14th and 24th, are expressed as follows:

1st	tsuitachi１日ついたち		2nd	futsuka２日ふつか
3rd	mikka３日みっか		4th	yokka４日よっか
5th	itsuka５日いつか		6th	muika６日むいか
7th	nanoka７日なのか		8th	yōka８日ようか
9th	kokonoka９日ここのか		10th	tōka１０日とおか
14th	jūyokka１４日じゅうよっか		24th	nijūyokka２４日にじゅうよっか

The remaining days of the month are expressed instead like this:

[Number of the day] + nichi日にち

Years

Years are expressed simply as follows:

[Number of the year] + nen年ねん

Importantly, the number of the year is pronounced like a normal number, not broken into chunks as is often done in English where we might say, “twenty nineteen” or “nineteen eighty-four”. Here’s an example:

For a much more detailed explanation of numbers and counters, including those used in time expressions, check out my book.

Hopefully it is clear now when it is (and is not) necessary to use the particle “ni”「に」 after a time expression in a sentence. Now, let’s put this to use and build some real sentences.

Using Japanese time expressions in a sentence

Now that we know when and when not to use the particle “ni”「に」, let’s go back to our sentence diagram and try building a few sentences using each type of time expression.

As we said, the timing expression can basically go anywhere, as long as it’s before the verb. Let’s try it with some examples.

Here are a few ways we can express this:

Yesterday, I ate sushi in Tsukiji.

Let’s try another one:

At 8 o’clock, I will watch a movie with my friend.

Now, although time expressions can basically appear anywhere, for more natural-sounding sentences, its best location tends to be either before the topic, or as the first thing after the topic. Check out my article about Japanese word order for more about typical, natural word order in Japanese sentences.

Here are some more example sentences that include various timing phrases from both categories. For all of them, the time expressions can be moved elsewhere in the sentence like in the examples above.

(Read more about the Japanese expressions for giving and receiving here.)

Combining Japanese time phrases

Sometimes it’s enough to just use one timing word, but often we need two or more. To make sure we don’t get confused, I’m going to break this section into two parts:

1. How to combine Japanese time expressions
2. How to use time expression combinations in a sentence

This way, we can focus on learning how to say things like, “Sunday night”, and then worry about fitting this into a sentence later.

How to combine Japanese time phrases

Here are some examples of the types of time expressions we can create when we combine multiple individual time words or phrases together:

• Last Thursday
• Next September
• 6pm tomorrow
• The first of January
• Monday evening
• Yesterday morning
• July 24^th, 2020
• The last day of next month at 9am

The way we combine time expression varies a little bit depending on the type of time expressions we are combining.

For most time expression combinations, we need to show that one of the time phrases is a subset of the other time phrase using the particle “no”「の」:

In general terms, the particle “no”「の」 works like this:

A non-time-related example of this would be:

The thing after “no”「の」, “namae”「名前なまえ」 belongs to the thing before “no”「の」, “watashi”「私わたし」. In other words, the name belongs to me, hence it is “my name”.

The same idea applies to time phrases like our example:

The Thursday belongs to last week, so it is “last week’s Thursday”, which in English we shorten to simply “last Thursday” (there is no such alternative phrasing in Japanese).

When we combine time expressions using “no”「の」 like this, the most important thing to remember is this:

Time expressions linked by “no”「の」 should be in order from largest to smallest.

Last week, a 7-day period, is “larger” than Thursday, a single day. The Thursday must belong to last week, not the other way around, so “senshū”「先週せんしゅう」 needs to be before the “no”「の」, and “mokuyōbi”「木曜日もくようび」 after it. Here are a few more examples showing this:

As you can see, the “larger” (or less specific) time expressions are always first, with each subsequent one being “smaller” (or more specific) than those that come before them.

Situations where we don’t use “no”

There are a few situations, however, where “no”「の」 is not required, the main two being dates and times. To express dates, for example, we simply string together the year, month and day in that order – no “no”「の」 is needed:

Similarly, if we want to express a time of day, we just say the hour then the minutes, without “no”「の」 in between:

Now, if we want to combine dates and times with each other, or with anything else, we generally would include “no”「の」 between those “chunks”. Here’s an example combining a date and a time:

Here are a few examples that combine dates or times with other time expressions:

Essentially:

• when combining non-number-based expressions, join them with “no”「の」
• dates don’t need “no”「の」 within them
• times don’t need “no”「の」 within them
• when combining two or more chunks together, we generally need to join them with “no”「の」
• always express them from largest to smallest (or least specific to most specific)

There are so many permutations and colloquialisms that it’s impossible to cover absolutely every possible situation, but stick to the above few rules and you’ll almost always be right.

How to use time phrase combinations in a sentence

Using time expression combinations in a sentence is really no different to the way we use simple time expressions.

Firstly, they can appear in the same locations – that is, before or after the topic, usually closer to the beginning of the sentence.

Secondly, the rules for whether or not to use “ni”「に」 are the same too – we just apply it to the last word or phrase in the overall time expression. Let’s see an example:

This ends in “mokuyōbi”「木曜日もくようび」, and “mokuyōbi”「木曜日もくようび」when used alone would require “ni”「に」, so the time expression as a whole requires “ni”「に」. The fact that “senshū”「先週せんしゅう」 wouldn’t need “ni”「に」 if used by itself is irrelevant.

It’s actually even easier than this – you virtually always need “ni”「に」 with time expression combinations because, by definition, time words that express time relative to “now” can’t really be used after “no”「の」; it generally just doesn’t make sense. Let’s try it:

When we join time expressions together in a chain, the whole reason we do so is so that the less specific time expressions give us the context we need to better understand the more specific ones.

Relative-to-now time expressions have this context built in, so they shouldn’t ever need further context, and we never need to anchor them to other time expressions.

So, since all time word combinations should end in a context-dependent time phrase, these combinations should always be followed by “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence. Here are some examples:

Key Takeaways

Hopefully you now have a solid understanding of time expressions in Japanese, how to use them in sentences, and when we need to use the particle “ni”「に」. Here are the key points from this lesson:

• Though they can appear almost anywhere in a sentence before the verb, the most common place for time expressions is immediately before or after the topic (and particle “wa”「は」).
• Time expressions that express a time relative to now, such as “ashita”「明日あした」 (tomorrow), “raishū”「来週らいしゅう」 (next week) and “ima”「今いま」 (now) itself, do not need to be followed by the particle “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence
• Time expressions that are repeating, do not shift as time progresses, and therefore depend on context for specificity, such as the time of day, days of the week, or months of the year, should always be followed by the particle “ni”「に」 when used in a sentence
• When combining time expressions, most should be joined together with the particle “no”「の」, in order from largest to smallest. The main exceptions are dates and times, which do not need “no”「の」 within themselves to join the year, month and date, or the hours and minutes. With combinations, use “ni”「に」 at the end if the last word in the phrase would normally need it.

After working on basic Japanese language skills such as particles, numbers, and counters, there comes a time when you will want to start describing your daily routine or making plans with friends. For this, you will need to learn how to tell time in Japanese!

Luckily, telling time in Japanese is not difficult, but particularly useful. Japanese time-telling typically uses the 12-hour clock (though the 24-hour clock is often used for timetables) and has helpful words that correspond to AM and PM in English. In this article, I will provide you with a fundamental guide for everyday time-telling in Japanese. The clock is ticking, so let’s get right to it!

Hours in Japanese: 時(じ)

Let’s proceed from big to small. The hours in Japanese are a cinch if you already know your numbers! O’clock in Japanese is 時(じ). Much like how we say “one o’clock” in English, you can simply say 一時!

English	Kanji	Kana	Romaji
~o’clock	～時	～じ	~ji
one o’clock	一時	いちじ	ichi-ji
two o’clock	二時	にじ	ni-ji
three o’clock	三時	さんじ	san-ji
four o’clock	四時	よじ	yo-ji
five o’clock	五時	ごじ	go-ji
six o’clock	六時	ろくじ	roku-ji
seven o’clock	七時	しちじ	shichi-ji
eight o’clock	八時	はちじ	hachi-ji
nine o’clock	九時	くじ	ku-ji
ten o’clock	十時	じゅうじ	juu-ji
eleven o’clock	十一時	じゅういちじ	juuichi-ji
twelve o’clock	十ニ時	じゅうにじ	juuni-ji

As you can see, some of the hours in the table above are written in bold. These numbers are irregular from your usual 1 through 10 counting style and I would suggest you pay special attention to them as you study. Another thing to be aware of is that you will often see these times written with Arabic numerals (e.g. 1時) rather than kanji. Pretty easy, huh? Now let’s put this into practice with some real sentences!

A: 今何時ですか？(Ima nanji desu ka?)

What time is it now?

B: 五時です。(Go-ji desu.)

It’s five o’clock.

Asking for the time politely is quite simple. You can also include the word 今 (now) in the beginning of your response (今五時です) but this is not necessary. To make your question more informal, just drop the ですか and say 今何時 (“ima nanji?”).

A: 授業はいつ始まりますか？(Jugyou wa itsu hajimarimasu ka?)

When does class start?

B: 授業は九時に始まります。(Jugyou wa kuji ni hajimarimasu.)

Class starts at nine o’clock.

いつ is an essential question word for our topic. This means “when” and, unlike the hour given in response to this question, it is not followed by the time-indicating particle に. However, it is not uncommon to see から (from) following いつ or the hour. See below:

A: 授業はいつから始まりますか？(Jugyou wa itsu kara hajimarimasu ka?)

From when does class start?

B: 授業は九時から始まります。(Jugyou wa kuji kara hajimarimasu.)

Class starts from nine o’clock.

Not too bad, right? Now, let’s move into more specific times and practice minutes!

Minutes in Japanese: 分(ふん / ぶん / ぷん)

While the pronunciation of ～時 did not change for any of our numbers, the pronunciation of the minute counter 分 does. 分(fun / pun) means minutes. Please check out the table below and notice the words in bold.

English	Kanji	Kana	Romaji
~minutes	～分	～ふん / ぶん / ぷん	~fun / bun / pun
one minute	一分	いっぷん	ippun
two minutes	二分	にふん	nifun
three minutes	三分	さんぷん	sanpun
four minutes	四分	よんぷん	yonpun
five minutes	五分	ごふん	gofun
six minutes	六分	ろっぷん	roppun
seven minutes	七分	ななふん	nanafun
eight minutes	八分	はっぷん	happun
nine minutes	九分	きゅうふん	kyuufun
ten minutes	十分	じゅっぷん	juppun
eleven minutes	十一分	じゅういっぷん	juuippun
twenty minutes	ニ十分	にじゅっぷん	nijuppun
thirty minutes	三十分	さんじゅっぷん	sanjuppun
fifty-five minutes	五十五分	ごじゅうごふん	gojuugofun

When it comes to counters in Japanese, you can generally rely on two and five staying regular. However, most of the other numbers 1-10 are fair game for slight changes in pronunciation! Getting used to this just comes down to practice. Luckily, the LingoDeer app and its accompanying drill app DeerPlus are great ways to have fun while mastering these linguistic quirks!

Let’s incorporate minutes into the hours that we learned just a moment ago with some practice dialogue.

A: いつ会いましょうか？(Itsu aimashou ka?)

When should we meet up?

B: 五時四十五分はどうですか？(Go-ji yonjuugofun wa dou desu ka?)

How about 5:45?

Just like in English, the minutes in Japanese follow the hour. Here’s another easy trick: if you’re talking about anything happening on the half-hour, you can just say 半(han) instead of 三十分! 

A: 毎日七時半に起きます。(Mainichi shichi-ji han ni okimasu.)

I get up at 7:30 every day.

Finally, 分 should be pronounced “pun” when following 何 to ask how many minutes. Here’s an example:

A: あと何分で着きますか？(Ato nanpun de tsukimasu ka?)

How many more minutes until you arrive?

B: あと十分で着きます。(Ato juppun de tsukimasu.)

I’ll arrive in ten minutes.

Seconds in Japanese: 秒(びょう)

It’s time to get really specific and learn about counting seconds! Seconds in Japanese is 秒(byou). The pronunciation of 秒 is nice and easy – it always stays “byou” no matter what the number. Let’s look at the table.

English	Kanji	Kana	Romaji
~seconds	～秒	～びょう	~byou
one second	～一秒	～いちびょう	~ichibyou
two seconds	～ニ秒	～にびょう	~nibyou
three seconds	～三秒	～さんびょう	~sanbyou
four seconds	～四秒	～よんびょう	~yonbyou
five seconds	～五秒	～ごびょう	~gobyou
six seconds	～六秒	～ろくびょう	~rokubyou
seven seconds	～七秒	～ななびょう	~nanabyou
eight seconds	～八秒	はちびょう	~hachibyou
nine seconds	～九秒	きゅうびょう	~kyuubyou
ten seconds	～十秒	じゅうびょう	~juubyou

Piece of cake! Too bad we rarely specify down to the second when we tell time. However, it’s great to know how to specify numbers of seconds when it comes to something like cooking instructions. If you want to describe the duration of time, you can follow the number of hours, minutes, or seconds with 間(kan). Check it out:

A: 1分30秒間炒めてください。(Ippun sanjuubyou kan itamete kudasai.)

Please saute for one minute and thirty seconds.

AM, PM, and Other Times of Day

Specifying AM and PM in Japanese is quite logical. Simply add 午前 (before noon) or 午後 (after noon) in front of your time. For example:

バスは午後六時十五分に出発します。

(Basu wa gogo roku-ji juugofun ni shuppatsu shimasu.)

The bus will depart at 6:15 PM.

or

毎日午前八時から午後四時まで働きます。 

(Mainichi gozen hachi-ji kara gogo yo-ji made hatarakimasu.)

I work from 8AM to 4PM every day.

You can also use words like 朝 (morning) 夜 (night) and 早朝 (early morning) in front of your time to describe the general time of day.

早朝五時に起きてしまいました。

(Souchou go-ji ni okite shimaimashita.)

I woke up early in the morning at five.

One excellent way to practice telling time in your target language is by using a diary! Try to take notes everyday about when you ate breakfast, how long you jogged for, what you did after work and for how long, etc. Alternatively, you could plan a travel itinerary for a dream vacation to Japan. Write out when you would arrive at the airport, how long your flight would be, and then what activities you would do after landing at Narita Airport! There are many creative exercises you can try to practice this new vocabulary, so don’t waste a second and get studying!

Indiana has been studying Japanese since high school and has always felt inspired by the pursuit of language learning. She graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Japanese Studies and Women’s Studies from the University at Albany. Currently working as a freelance JP-EN translator, she also enjoys studying Korean, German, and Spanish when she can find the time and assists local refugee families in overcoming language barriers and navigating new and unfamiliar environments.
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