Latest / Learn Japanese with Fexingo / Japanese Time Telling - Hour Basics
Transcript
- Lucas: Hey Luna, welcome back to Learn Japanese with Fexingo! We're on episode 45 now. Luna: I can't believe it's already 45! I've been practicing my numbers from last episode. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten... Lucas: Nice job. Those will come in handy today because we're learning to tell time in Japanese. Luna: Oh, I've been wanting to know how to say what time it is. That's so useful. Lucas: It really is. So the basic pattern is number plus 時, which means hour. So 一時 is one o'clock. Luna: 一時. One o'clock. That's easy. Lucas: Exactly. Now how do you think you'd ask 'What time is it?' Luna: Hmm... maybe 何時? But I don't know the rest. Lucas: Close! It's 何時ですか. 何時 means 'what hour', and ですか makes it a polite question. Luna: 何時ですか. What time is it? Let me try: 何時ですか. Lucas: Perfect. Now if someone asks you that, you answer with the hour plus です. Like 一時です for 'it's one o'clock'. Luna: So 一時です. Got it. Lucas: Let's practice a few more. Two o'clock is 二時です. Luna: 二時です. Lucas: Three o'clock is 三時です. Luna: 三時です. That sounds so clean. Lucas: Four o'clock is a little different. It's 四時です, but the pronunciation changes. 四 can be read as し, so 四時 is しじ. Luna: しじ. So four o'clock is しじです. Lucas: Yes. And five o'clock is 五時です. Luna: 五時です. Lucas: Great. Now let's put it together. I'll ask you 何時ですか, and you answer with the time I show you. Ready? Luna: Ready! Lucas: 何時ですか. Luna: 一時です. Lucas: Right. Next: 何時ですか. Luna: 三時です. Lucas: You're a natural. Now let's say you're meeting a friend and you want to confirm the time. You could say 何時ですか？ And they might answer 四時です. Luna: So I could say 何時ですか？ and they say 四時です. Nice. Lucas: Exactly. Let's do a quick role-play. I'll be your friend. Luna: Okay. 何時ですか? Lucas: 五時です. Luna: Ah, five o'clock. Got it. Lucas: You're doing awesome. Now let's review all the phrases we covered today. Luna: Sure. So we have 何時ですか for 'what time is it?' Lucas: Yes. And then the answers: 一時です, 二時です, 三時です, 四時です, 五時です. Luna: I love that. I'll be checking the time everywhere now. Lucas: That's the spirit. Remember, you can use any number from 1 to 10 with 時. And don't forget, for four o'clock we say しじ, not よじ. That's a little exception. Luna: しじ. I'll remember that. Lucas: Keep practicing these, and next time we'll build on telling time with minutes. Luna: I can't wait! Thanks, Lucas. And thanks to Fexingo for making this so fun. Lucas: Yeah, keep listening and practicing. See you next time! Luna: Bye!