Telling Time in Japanese

The basic pattern: hour + 時, minutes + 分

A Japanese time is a number plus 時 (じ, o'clock), then a number plus 分 (ふん or ぷん, minutes). Both are counters, so they follow the same idea as the ones in Japanese counters: the counter sits right after the number, and some numbers change their sound in front of it.

• 8:00 八時 (はちじ)
• 8:05 八時五分 (はちじ ごふん)
• 8:20 八時二十分 (はちじ にじゅっぷん)
• 8:45 八時四十五分 (はちじ よんじゅうごふん)

In everyday writing you will usually see Arabic numerals, so 8時20分 or simply 8:20, especially on phones, signs and timetables. Kanji numerals appear more in vertical text. If the base numbers are not solid yet, start with Japanese numbers, since every time is built from them.

Hours and minutes: the irregular readings

Most readings are regular, but a handful are not. This table shows the hours and minutes up to ten, with the irregular ones in bold:

For hours, only three stand out. 四時 is よじ, not よんじ. 七時 is しちじ, using the older reading of seven. 九時 is くじ, not きゅうじ. Eleven and twelve are regular: じゅういちじ and じゅうにじ.

For minutes, the pattern comes from the sound change rules for counters that start with h or f. After 1, 6, 8 and 10 the consonant doubles and ふん becomes ぷん: いっぷん, ろっぷん, はっぷん, じゅっぷん. After 3 and 4 it also becomes ぷん: さんぷん, よんぷん. The rest stay ふん. Because larger numbers end in the same digits, the pattern repeats: 11 minutes is じゅういっぷん, 20 is にじゅっぷん and 33 is さんじゅうさんぷん. For 10, the older じっぷん is also correct and still heard, though じゅっぷん is now more common in speech. You may also hear はちふん for 8 minutes.

Memorize four hours first: よじ, しちじ, くじ and the question なんじ. Then learn the minute rule as one sentence: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 take ぷん.

Half past, before and after

Japanese has short words for the times you say most often:

• 半 (はん), half past: 三時半 (さんじはん) is 3:30. 半 replaces 三十分 in speech, though both are correct.
• 前 (まえ), before: 五時十分前 (ごじ じゅっぷん まえ) is ten to five, 4:50. On its own, 五時前 means just before five.
• 過ぎ (すぎ), after: 五時過ぎ (ごじすぎ) is just after five. 五時十分過ぎ is also possible, but 五時十分 is more usual.
• ごろ, around: 七時ごろ (しちじごろ) is around seven, very common when making plans.
• ちょうど, exactly: ちょうど九時 (ちょうど くじ) is nine o'clock sharp.

Japanese has no special word for a quarter past or a quarter to, so 3:15 is simply 三時十五分 and 3:45 is 三時四十五分. 前 and 後 (ご, after) are worth learning as kanji too, because they appear again in 午前 and 午後.

AM and PM: 午前 and 午後

On the 12-hour clock, a.m. is 午前 (ごぜん, before noon) and p.m. is 午後 (ごご, after noon). Unlike English, they come before the time: 午前十時 (ごぜん じゅうじ) is 10 a.m. and 午後三時半 (ごご さんじはん) is 3:30 p.m. In conversation people often drop them and use time-of-day words instead, such as 朝七時 (あさ しちじ, 7 in the morning) or 夜九時 (よる くじ, 9 at night).

Noon and midnight are where 12-hour times get ambiguous. Japanese newspapers and broadcasters use 0 instead of 12, so midnight is 午前0時 and noon is 午後0時. If you see 午前0時15分 on a schedule, it means 12:15 a.m., a quarter past midnight.

24-hour times and 25時

The 24-hour clock is common in Japan, especially on train schedules, so 18時 (じゅうはちじ) is 6 p.m. and 21時30分 is 9:30 p.m. Reading these needs nothing new: the hour is just a bigger number, and 14時 is じゅうよじ, keeping the よじ reading of four.

You may also see hours past 24. Late-night TV listings and the closing times of bars and clubs sometimes write 25時 for 1 a.m. or 26時 for 2 a.m., so the night still belongs to the previous day. This style is mostly written and rarely used in conversation.

Asking the time and talking about how long

To ask the time, say 今何時ですか (いま なんじですか, what time is it now?). 今 is now and 何 is what. For minutes the question is 何分 (なんぷん). To give a time something happens, add に: 六時に起きます (ろくじに おきます, I get up at six). For timetables and opening hours, から and まで mean from and until: 九時から五時まで (くじから ごじまで, from nine to five).

Durations use a slightly different word for hours. 時 is a point on the clock, while 時間 (じかん) is a length of time: 三時 is three o'clock, but 三時間 (さんじかん) is three hours. The irregular readings carry over, so four hours is よじかん and nine hours is くじかん. Minutes work the same for both, with an optional 間: 十分 or 十分間 (じゅっぷんかん) for ten minutes. Seconds use 秒 (びょう).

半 works for durations too. An hour and a half is 一時間半 (いちじかんはん), and two and a half hours is 二時間半 (にじかんはん). To ask how long something takes, use 何時間 (なんじかん, how many hours) or 何分 (なんぷん, how many minutes), often with かかります: 駅まで何分かかりますか (えきまで なんぷん かかりますか, how many minutes does it take to the station?).

These words are core beginner material. 時, 分, 半, 今 and 何 all appear on common N5 kanji lists, and times come up often in beginner listening practice, as the JLPT N5 study guide explains. Moji includes these kanji in its N5 set with spaced repetition reviews, which suits words you will meet every day.