How to Say What Time Is It in Japanese: Ima Nanji Desu Ka and Hearing the Answer

Asking the question: ima nanji desu ka

The basic question is ima nanji desu ka, made of ima, now, nanji, what hour, and desu ka. Ima is optional, but it makes the question sound natural rather than like a quiz. To a stranger, add sumimasen at the front and perhaps wakarimasu ka, do you know, which softens it further. Among friends, ima nanji? with a rising tone is enough, and very casually just nanji?

If you want the time of an event rather than the time now, replace ima with the event and the particle wa: kaigi wa nanji desu ka, what time is the meeting. Nanji ni asks at what time when the answer will be used with a verb: nanji ni aimashō ka, what time shall we meet. This distinction between nanji desu ka and nanji ni is the first thing to get comfortable with.

Hearing the hour: ji and the three irregular numbers

The answer starts with a number plus ji, hour. Most are regular: ichiji, niji, sanji, goji, rokuji, hachiji, jūji, jūichiji, jūniji. Three hours are irregular and cause most of the mishearing. Four is yoji, never yonji or shiji; seven is shichiji, although some people say nanaji to avoid confusion with ichiji; nine is kuji, never kyūji. Learners who have memorised yon and kyū for counting have to unlearn them here.

People usually add desu or desu yo to the answer: sanji desu yo, it's three. If the minute part is zero, nothing more is said; there is no o'clock word. Chōdo, exactly, sometimes goes in front for a round hour: chōdo sanji desu. When you are not sure you heard right, repeat the time back with a question tone, sanji desu ne, and the speaker will confirm or correct.

Hearing the minutes: fun, pun and han

Minutes come after the hour with fun. The sound changes are the same ones that appear with other counters, and in fast speech they are all you hear, so it pays to know them by ear. After one, six, eight and ten, fun becomes pun and the number shortens: ippun, roppun, happun, juppun. After three and four, fun becomes pun without shortening: sanpun, yonpun. After two, five, seven and nine it stays fun: nifun, gofun, nanafun, kyūfun. Twenty is nijuppun, thirty is sanjuppun, and the pattern repeats with each ten.

Half past is han, placed after the hour: sanji han, half past three. There is no word for quarter past; people say jūgofun, fifteen minutes. Past and to are not needed, because Japanese always counts forward from the hour: 2:50 is niji gojuppun, not ten to three. When the time is approximate, goro goes after it, sanji goro, around three, and mae, before, or sugi, after, describe just before or just after: sanji sugi, a little after three.

Gozen, gogo and the 24-hour clock

Japanese distinguishes morning and afternoon with gozen, a.m., and gogo, p.m., placed before the time: gozen jūji, ten in the morning; gogo jūji, ten at night. In ordinary conversation people often prefer the time-of-day words asa, hiru, yūgata and yoru: asa no shichiji, seven in the morning; yoru no kuji, nine at night. These carry a particle no, which gozen and gogo do not.

Timetables, shop signs, cinema listings and station announcements use the 24-hour clock. Nineteen o'clock is jūku-ji, twenty-one is nijūichi-ji, and midnight is often reikiji or nijūyoji. Notice that fourteen, nineteen and twenty-four use the irregular forms: jūyoji, jūkuji, nijūyoji. When you read a sign that says 10:00〜20:00, you say jūji kara nijūji made.

When someone says jūji desu, it is usually obvious from the context whether they mean morning or night. If it is not, ask asa desu ka, yoru desu ka, and they will clarify without any awkwardness.

Opening and closing times: nanji kara and nanji made

Kara means from and made means until, and they attach directly to times. Nanji kara desu ka asks when something starts; nanji made desu ka asks when it ends. Put the two together and you have the standard question for business hours: eigyō jikan wa nanji kara nanji made desu ka. Staff answer in the same shape, jūji kara hachiji made desu, and may add the last order time, rasuto ōdā, for a restaurant, or the days it is closed, teikyūbi.

The same pair works for anything with a start and an end: a lesson, a festival, a museum, a lunch break. Made ni, by, is different from made: goji made ni means by five o'clock, a deadline, while goji made means until five, a duration. Hours vary by shop and by day of the week, so if it matters, confirm at the door or online rather than relying on what you remember from last time.

Train times and platforms

At a station, the time questions are about the next train, the last train and the arrival. Tsugi no densha wa nanji desu ka asks for the next departure, and shūden wa nanji desu ka for the last one, which is the question that saves you a taxi. Staff answer with the 24-hour clock and exact minutes, often followed by the platform: nijūsan-ji yonjū-gofun, san-bansen, 23:45 from platform three.

Because a train time has hours, minutes and a platform number in one breath, this is the hardest listening in everyday time-telling. Repeat the time back before you move, and ask nanban-sen desu ka if the platform was not given. To ask how long the journey takes, use dono kurai kakarimasu ka, and to ask the arrival time, nanji ni tsukimasu ka.

A quick listening drill you can do anywhere

The fastest way to get comfortable with the answer is to say times aloud in the order people hear them, not in a table. Use this list once a day for a week, reading each item as a full sentence with desu, then say the time on your phone the same way whenever you check it.

• Say the twelve hours in order, pausing on yoji, shichiji and kuji
• Say one to ten minutes with fun and pun: ippun, nifun, sanpun, yonpun, gofun, roppun, nanafun, happun, kyūfun, juppun
• Add han to each hour: ichiji han, niji han, and so on
• Say the tens: juppun, nijuppun, sanjuppun, yonjuppun, gojuppun
• Put a random hour and minute together and say it with gozen or gogo
• Read three train times from a timetable using the 24-hour clock
• Say the opening hours of a shop you know with kara and made
• Ask yourself ima nanji desu ka and answer with the real time, every time you look

The list is short on purpose. Ten minutes a day of saying real times aloud does more for listening than an hour of reading rules, because the sound changes become physical habits rather than facts.

Common mistakes when asking and telling the time

The first mistake is the irregular hours: yonji, shichiji said as nanaji in the wrong place, and kyūji all mark a learner immediately. Yoji, shichiji or nanaji, and kuji are the forms to fix. Second is forgetting the minute sound changes and saying roku-fun or ichi-fun, which are understood but sound stiff. Third is saying past and to in Japanese, for example trying to build ten to three; count forward from the hour instead.

A fourth error is mixing up nanji and nanjikan. Nanji asks what time; nanjikan asks how many hours. Kaigi wa nanji desu ka is what time is the meeting, while kaigi wa nanjikan desu ka is how long is the meeting. Similarly, made and made ni are not interchangeable. Finally, when you cannot follow a fast answer, ask for a repeat rather than guessing: mō ichido onegaishimasu, or, for a train time, yukkuri onegaishimasu, slowly please.