10/03/2018 Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates and Time – Japanese Journey Lessons

Japanese Journey Lessons

My Journey of mastering Japanese – from Beginner to

Fluency

Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates

and Time
April 30, 2015April 30, 2015

TODAY’S JAPANESE LESSON FOR BEGINNERS

How to tell date and time

Let’s hop straight into today’s lesson!

1. Telling Dates in Japanese

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10/03/2018 Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates and Time – Japanese Journey Lessons

1a. Relative ‘Dates’ 

Relative ‘dates’ (for the lack of a better word) refers to words that refer to days in relation to the
present. (words such as today, tomorrow, last year, etc)

Here are the relative ‘dates’:

(https://japanesejourneylessons.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/relative-dates1.jpg)

1A. Specific DATES

Specific dates refer to….specific dates! Just look at the table below and you’d get the idea.

(https://japanesejourneylessons.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/calendar-in-japanese.jpg)
Days in Japanese

Take special notice of the colored days. The first 10 days and the 29th day of the month come with
their very own noun. Take some time to memorise these so that you do not sound like a clueless
Gaijin in Japan! ^^

Also, note that the days ending with -4 end with  よっか and NOTよんにち.
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10/03/2018 Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates and Time – Japanese Journey Lessons

Once you are done with the specific days, let’s move on to learning the months in Japanese!

(https://japanesejourneylessons.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/months-in-japanese.jpg)
Months in Japanese

Notice the pattern? Yes! ( 月 げつ

) refers to ‘month’ in Japanese.  Just at the number in front of  月 to
tell the month to your Japanese friends.

BUT! Take note of tricky July – it is said as しちがつ instead of  なながつ!

2. TELLING Time IN JAPANESE

(http://alliancecoffee.net)

And now, its time to learn about telling time in Japanese! (pun intended)

2A. RELATIVE Time

As per the explanation of relative ‘dates’, relative time nouns also refer to time with relation to the
present. Some examples include: Morning, afternoon, evening.

In this section, you will also be introduced to a combination of the relative ‘dates’ you have learnt
above as used with relative time. (Don’t worry, its not too mind blowing!)

Read the table below for all the relative time nouns in Japanese;

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10/03/2018 Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates and Time – Japanese Journey Lessons

(https://japanesejourneylessons.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/relative-time-in-japanese.jpg)
Relative Time In Japanese

2B. [B for Bonus] Repetitive TIME/date

Now that you know how to tell the relative date and time, how do you express something that is
done on a regular schedule?

Here’s how:

Every Morning = 毎朝 まいあさ)

(
Every Evening = 毎晩 まいばん)
(
Every Day = 毎日 まいにち)
(
Every Week = 毎週 まいしゅう)
(
Every Month = 毎月 まいつき)
(
Every Year =毎年 まいおし or まいねん)
(

Get the pattern?  毎 is used to refer to ‘every’!

Take note of 毎月 (every month): 月 here is read as つき and not がつ! Tricky tricky

2C. Specific time 

What time is it in Japanese?

Before we go reading the time specifically, here are some terms that you would need to know:
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 時じ
10/03/2018 Japanese Lessons for Beginners – Dates and Time – Japanese Journey Lessons

Hour = ( )
分 ふん) [Special note: depending on the number that precedes 分, it can be read as ふ
Minute = (
ん ぷん
, or .]
秒 びょう)
Second =   (
午前 ごぜん)
A.M. = (
午後 ごご)
P.M. = (

Alright, now that you know how to read ‘hour’, ‘minute’ and ‘second’ in Japanese, let’s move on to
learn to read specific timings. Refer to the table below.

(https://japanesejourneylessons.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/time-specifics1.jpg)
How to tell time in Japanese (special pronunciation are highlighted)

There’s no escaping, you will have to memorise the above table to become a proficient Japanese time
reporter!

But, here are some examples to help you:

4.35pm = ごご  四時  三十五分

12.34am = ごぜん  十二時  三十四分

Finally…

We have reached the end of today’s lesson!

How is today’s lesson? If you have gone through it seriously, you would be speaking dates and time
in Japanese like a native by now! (well, as least you would know how to like a native)

Hmm, we should get some native Japanese to help all of us with our Japanese intonation soon….

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Posted in: fundamentals, japanese lessons, logs | Tagged: calendar in japanese, date, day after, days in
japanese, japanese lessons for beginners, months in japanese, relative time, specific dates, tell time in japanese,
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