Time & Day
Once you have master the pronunciation of Numbers that I have covered earlier, this section will be easy for you.
12.00 – Juuni ji
12.30 – Juuni ji han
12.45 – Juuni ji yonjuu go fun
Meaning : Ji (o’clock), Fun (Minute), Byou (Second)
1 minute – ippun
2 minute – nifun
3 minute – sanbun
4 minute – yonfun
5 minute – gofun
6 minute – roppun
7 minute – nanafun
8 minute – happun
9 minute – kyuufun
10 minute – juppun
On date, we use Nichi (Date aka Day), Getsu / Gatsu (Month), Nen (Year) & Youbi (Day). For Western, they use Month-Day-Year or Day-Month-Year but for Japanese, they use Year-Month-Day.
Example
19th December 2005 – 2005 nen juuni gatsu juukyuu nichi desu
For Day (Youbi), Japanese uses Moon (mon), Fire (tue), Water (wed), Wood (thur), Gold (fri), Earth (sat) and Sun (sun).
Monday – Getsu youbi
Tuesday – Ka youbi
Wednesday – Sui youbi
Thursday – Moku youbi
Friday – Kin youbi
Saturday – Do youbi
Sunday – Nichi youbi
Day after Tomorrow – Asatte
Tomorrow – Ashita
Today – Kyou
Yesterday – Kinou
Day before Yesterday – Ototoi
This Week – Konshuu, This Month (Kon getsu)
Next Week – Raishuu, Next Month (Rai getsu)
Last Week – Senshuu, Last Month (Sen getsu)
Let’s go for some conversation lesson :
Today is Monday – Kyou wa getsu youbi desu
What time we / you are going? – Nanji ni ikimasu ka?
Go at 3 o’clock – Sanji ni ikimasu
When is our meeting? – Kaigi wa itsu shimasu ka?
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February 27th, 2010 at 3:06 pm
Hey Tony, great site! I was wondering, why does it go
“ippun, nifun, sanbun, yonfun, gofun, roppun, nanafun, happun, kyuufun, juppun”
instead of
“ichifun, nifun, sanfun, yonfun, gofun, rokufun, nanafun, hachifun, kyuufun, juufun” ?
February 27th, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Well, there is no reason and this is how it was designed.
September 22nd, 2012 at 7:14 am
There is a reason. BU and PU are derivatives of FU (look at HA column in the hiragana table). There is a rule depending on the silable that precedes it and says that you must change it to become more natural to pronounce the word. Try to say quickly Ichifun and Ippun, which one is easier to pronounce?
In other languages, as russian, they make the same change. It is based in soft and hard consonants and it is more clear if you compare TA with DA or SA with ZA – you make the same movement with mouth/tongue but the first one you don’t need the throat to make the sound. That’s why they share the same hiragana/katakana except for a small mark (tenten).