す う じ とき

数字と時

After learning the numbers, the first proper exercises you will stumble upon will be the ones
related to telling the time. Telling the time requires some quick thinking and adds a few more
specific readings of kanji combinations, but besides those, all you’ll need to know are the
numbers and two extra kanji for the hour and the minutes.

時（とき、じ）- time, hour, o’clock

分（ふん、ぶん、ぷん）- minute
Please note that 時 is pronounced as じ when it comes to telling the time. Using these two kanji to
tell the time is fairly simple – just write down the number, followed by either 時 for the hour and
分 for the minutes. Here’s an example:

さ ん じ
三時です。 - It’s 3 o’clock.
い ち じ ご ふ ん
一時五分です。- It’s 1:05.
ろくじさんじゅうごふん
六時三十五分です。 - It’s 6:35.
When speaking, Japanese use the twelve-hour system to tell the time, so you’ll only be using the
numbers from 1 to 12 for the hours. Before saying the time, you’ll specify whether you’re talking
about A.M. or P.M. with ごぜん and ごご respectively.

There are some notable reading discrepancies that you should try your very best to remember.
Similarly to the numbers, the notable pronunciation differences can be seen in 3,6 and 8, but
there are some new exceptions for 4, 9, 1 and 10 as well.

１時 いちじ
２時 にじ
３時 さんじ
４時 よじ
５時 ごじ
６時 ろくじ
７時 しちじ
８時 はちじ
９時 くじ
１０時 じゅうじ
１１時 じゅういちじ
１２時 じゅうにじ
何時 なんじ

１分 いっぷん
２分 にふん
３分 さんふん
４分 よんふん
５分 ごふん
６分 ろっぷん
７分 ななふん
８分 はっぷん
９分 きゅうふん
１０分 じゅっぷん
１１分 じゅういっぷん
２０分 にじゅっぷん
何分 なんぷん
When it comes to 30 minutes, however, the Japanese use a different kanji instead of writing ３０
分。The kanji for “half” is 半, and is placed after the number and the hour e.g. 九時半、三時半、
一時半、十時半

A great way to get some practice with telling the time is looking at a clock. Check the clock after
several minutes to get more randomized numbers and keep the discrepancies in mind. You’ll
most likely get asked 「いまなんじですか。」by your Sensei at the beginning of your Japanese
lectures, giving you a great opportunity to practise your speaking and remember any reading
differences. As always, I will include a link to Jisho.org featuring all kanji from this lesson, I
highly recommend checking Jisho out if you haven’t yet.

https://jisho.org/search/%E6%99%82%E5%88%86%E5%8D%8A%20%23kanji