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Talking About Days And Times

• KyO wa nanyobi desu ka. (kyohh wah nahn-yohh-bee deh-soo kah; What day is it today?)
• Kyo wa doyobi desu. (kyohh wah doh-yohh-bee deh-soo; Today is Saturday.)
• Getsuyobi kara kinyobi made hatarakimasu. (geh-tsoo-yohh-bee kah-rah keen-yohh-bee mah-deh hah-tah-rah-kee-mah-soo; 1 work from Monday to Friday.)
• Konsato wa doyobi desu. (kohn-sahh-toh wa doh-yohh-bee deh-soo; The concert is on Saturday.)
• Nichiyobi wa yukkuri shimasu. (nee-chee-yohh-bee wah yook-koo-ree shee-mah-soo; I relax on Sundays.)

Telling Time

You can express jikoku Qee-koh-koo; time) in Japanese by using the counter -ji (jee; o'clock), as shown in below table

If you want to specify gozen (goh-zehn; a.m.) or gogo (goh-goh; p.m.), put the appropriate word in front of the number. Here are a couple of examples:

• gozen 2-ji (goh-zehn nee-jee; 2 a.m.)
• gogo 3-san-ji 17-fun (goh-goh sahn-jee jooo-nah-nah-foon; 3:17 p.m.)

You can use the convenient phrase han (hahn; half) for "half an hour" or "30 minutes." Mae (mah-eh; before) and sugi (soo-gee; after) are also convenient for telling time. Sorry, but Japanese doesn't have a simple phrase for "quarter-hour" or "15 minutes."

To ask "What time is it now?" say Ima nan-ji desu ka (ee-mah nahn-jee deh-soo kah). Here are some possible answers:

• 1-ji han(ee-chee-jee hahn; 1:30)
• 2-ji 5-fun mae(nee-jee goh-foon mah-eh; 5 minutes before 2:00)
• 3-ji 5-fun sugi(sahn-jee goh-foon soo-gee; 5 minutes after 3:00)

Japanese schedules usually follow the 24-hour system. For example, 1-ji (ee-chee-jee) means 1 a.m., and 13-ji Qooo-sahn-jee) means 1 p.m. All you need to do is say the number and add -ji to the end. This system eliminates a.m./p.m. ambiguity, so you don't need to say gozen or gogo.

To ask questions like at what time, from what time, and until what time, you need the particle ni (nee; at), kara (kah-rah; from), or made (mah-deh; until). Make sure you place the particle after the time phrase. Grammatically speaking, Japanese is often the mirror image of English, and this is one of those times. "At 5:00" is "5:00 at" in Japanese, "from 7:00" is "7:00 from" in Japanese, and "until 9:00" is "9:00 until" in Japanese.

• Nan-ji kara desu ka. Ni-ji kara desu. (nahn-jee kah-rah deh-soo kah. nee-jee kah-rah deh-soo; From what time is it? From 2:00.)
• Nan-ji made desu ka. San-ji made desu. (nahn-jee mah-deh deh-soo kah. sahn-jee mah-deh deh-soo; Until what time is it? Until 3:00.)
• Konsato wa nan-ji ni hajimanmasu ka. San-ji ni hajimarimasu.(kohn-sahh-toh wah nahn-jee nee hah-jee-mah-ree-mah-soo kah. sahn-jee nee hah-jee-mah-ree-mah-soo; What time does the concert start? It starts at 3:00.)
• Ega wa 11-ji kara 12-ji made desu. (ehh-gah wah jooo-ee-chee-jee kah-rah jooo-nee-jee mah-deh deh-soo; The movie is from 11:00 to 12:00.)

If you don't need to express an exact time, you can estimate the time of day by using the following terms:

• asa (ah-sah; morning)
• hiru (hee-roo; noon)
• ban (bahn; evening)
• mayonaka (mah-yoh-nah-kah; midnight)