Latest / Learn Japanese with Fexingo / Japanese Telling Time - Quarter To
Transcript
- Lucas: Hey Luna, ready for another episode of Learn Japanese with Fexingo? Luna: Totally! I've been practicing telling time from last episode. Quarter past was tricky but I got it. Lucas: Nice work! Today we'll tackle 'quarter to' — that's 十五分前 in a sense, but we'll use the same 四十五分 pattern. Luna: Oh, so it's like 'forty-five minutes past'? That makes sense. Lucas: Exactly. So for quarter to two, we say 二時四十五分. Let's break it down: 二時 is two o'clock, 四十五分 is forty-five minutes. Luna: 二時四十五分. So it's literally 'two forty-five'. Lucas: Right. Now you try. Quarter to three. Luna: 三時四十五分. Lucas: Perfect. Quarter to four. Luna: 四時四十五分. Lucas: You're a natural. Now let's add 午前 and 午後. For example, 午前三時四十五分 means 3:45 AM. Luna: 午前三時四十五分. And 午後三時四十五分 is 3:45 PM. Lucas: Exactly. Now let's practice a question. How do you ask 'What time is it?' as quarter to? Luna: 何時四十五分ですか? Wait, is that right? Lucas: Almost! The natural way is 何時ですか and then answer with the time. But you can say 今何時ですか. Then answer like 今二時四十五分です. Luna: Ah, got it. 今何時ですか. 今二時四十五分です. Lucas: If Fexingo has been helping you make real progress with Japanese, we'd really appreciate if you could support the show. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really helps us keep making episodes ad-free and fun. Every bit counts. Lucas: Now, let's imagine it's 8:45 AM. How would you say that in Japanese? Luna: 午前八時四十五分. Lucas: Perfect! And if it's 8:45 PM? Luna: 午後八時四十五分. Lucas: You've got it. Let's do a quick review: quarter to two, three, four, and five. Luna: 二時四十五分, 三時四十五分, 四時四十五分, 五時四十五分. Lucas: Awesome. So next time you see 8:45, you can say 八時四十五分. Keep practicing these and you'll be a time-telling pro. Luna: Definitely. Thanks Lucas, this was super helpful. Lucas: Thanks for joining us on Fexingo. Practice these phrases till we chat again. See you next time! Luna: Bye bye!