6.1 Talking about time and date

Talking about time and date

Telling the time — 時・分

Time is expressed using 時じ for hours and 分（ふん / ぷん） for minutes.

Structure:

Hour ＋ 時 ＋ Minute ＋ 分

Minutes have sound changes:

Moreover, 半はん means “half past”:

To distinguish between AM and PM use:

• 午前 — AM
• 午後 — PM

Note that this comes before the hours.

Seconds use the counter 秒:

〜くらい and 〜頃

Both ～くらい and ～ころ頃（ごろ） are used to talk about approximate time.

• ～くらい — about / approximately
• ～ころ頃 — around / at about that time

～くらい is a little more casual than ～頃.

Asking the time

To ask about the time, replace the time with a question word and add か.

Dates

Years — 年

Years use the counter ねん年（ねん）.

Months — 月

Dates — 日

Dates are expressed using numbers + 日, but many dates have special readings.

Days of the week — 曜日

Relative time expressions

Using に with time

Use に with:

• Time of day: ろくじ六時よん四じゅうぶん十分に
• Vague time of day: あさ朝に, ごご午後に, ゆうがた夕方に, よる夜に
• Days of the week: もくようび木曜日に
• Days of the month: はつか二十日に
• Months of the year: ごがつ五月に
• Seasons: ふゆ冬に, はる春に, なつ夏に, あき秋に
• Years: せん きゅうひゃく きゅうじゅう きゅうねん1999年に

Don't use に with:

• Expressions related to the present moment: いま今, きょう今日, きのう昨日, あす明日, けさ今朝, こんや今夜, こんしゅう今週, せんしゅう先週
• Expression that describe repetition: まいにち毎日, まいしゅう毎週, まいつき毎月, まいとし毎年

Points to keep in mind

• 時 / 分 / 秒 are used for clock time
• 半 means “half past”
• 年 / 日 are used for dates