Nihongo: Telling Time

During class, my sensei will often ask whoever is closest to the wall “Ima nanji desu ka” which means “what time is it.”  My time telling skills on the fly are rather sub-par, so I decided to write up a tutorial on telling time in Japanese to help not only myself, but anyone else who wants to learn.

To tell time, we must first begin with numbers.  Counting in Japanese is a little confusing for beginners, because if you are counting people you use different (but similar) words than if you are counting objects.  In the dojo we use numbers different from regular counting as well.  So, I will teach using the counting system we use in class.

1. ichi 一
2. ni 二
3. san 三
4. shi (or yon) 四 shi also means death, which is why the Japanese prefer to use Yon. This is also directly related to the superstition that 4 is an unlucky number.
5. go 五
6. roku 六
7. shichi (or nana) 七
8. hachi 八
9. kyuu 九
10. juu 拾

Anything above 10 is a combination of 2 or more numbers. Here are a few examples.
11 - juu ichi
24 - ni juu yon
55 - go juu go

Now that we know the numbers, lets focus on a few vocabulary words relating to telling time and asking for the time.

Ima nanji desu ka? - What Time is it?

ji (時) is used after the hours and is equivalent to “o-clock”
fun/pun (分) is used for minutes.
han (半) is used for half.
desu (です) is “to be”

When telling time there are three numbers that have a special case.

4:00 is said as yo ji instead of yon ji
7:00 is said as shichi ji instead of nana ji
9:00 is said as ku ji instead of kyu ji

Now, let’s put it all together. Ima nanji desu ka?

1:00 - ichi ji desu
2:15 - ni ji juu go pun desu
8:54 - hachi ji go juu yon pun desu
9:23 - ku ji ni juu san pun desu
3:30 - san ji han desu

Now you can tell time in Japanese. On a side note, in Japan, because of the superstition around the number 4, monetary gifts are never given in amounts with a 4 in them. You might give 50,000 yen or 30,000 yen, but not 40,000 yen.