More Basic Expressions in Japanese That You Need to Know

 

In Japanese just like in another language, the ability to tell the time and location is really important. Without the ability to do so, we will miss out a lot of things that happened around us. So in this post, we will discuss the basics on how to tell and ask the time and location in Japanese.

Telling and Asking Time

The first thing we will be discussing is about telling time of the clock in Japanese. Just like in other languages, the order of telling time in Japanese is also the hour followed by the minute. 

Hours in Japanese

Hour	Kanji	Transliteration
1.00	一時	Ichi ji
2.00	二時	Ni ji
3.00	三時	San ji
4.00	四時	Yo ji
5.00	五時	Go ji
6.00	六時	Roku ji
7.00	七時	Shichi ji
8.00	八時	Hachi ji
9.00	九時	Ku ji
10.00	十時	Juu ji
11.00	十一時	Juu ichi ji
12.00	十二時	Juu ni ji

  Minutes in Japanese

minutes	Kanji	Transliteration
1	一分	Ippun
2	二分	Ni fun
3	三分	Sanpun
4	四分	Yonpun
5	五分	Go fun
6	六分	Roppun
7	七分	Nana fun
8	八分	Happun
9	九分	Kyuu fun
10	十分	Juppun
15	十五分	Juu go fun
20	二十分	Ni juppun
30	三十分	San juppun
40	四十分	Yon juppun
45	四十五分	Yon juu go fun
50	五十分	Goppun

Example:

3.15

三時十五分

San ji juu go fun

For half an hour we can also use 半/han which mean half in japanese.

3.30

三時半

San ji han

To ask the time in Japanese we can use some of the phrases below.

What time is it now?

今何時ですか?

Ima nanji desuka?

What time is the (event)?

(desuka)は何時ですか?

(event) wa nanji desuka?

To use the time in a sentence to show when something is happening, we can use the particle に/ni after the time or the adverb.

Example:

バスは一時に出発します。

Basu wa ichiji ni shuppatsu shimasu

The bus will depart at 1 o'clock

明日に行きます

Ashita ni ikimasu

I will go tomorrow

Some adverb that we can use to show the time in Japanese.

Telling and Asking Location

To tell a location in Japanese, we can use the construction below.

(location word) wa (something) desu.

Example:

あそこはトイレです。

asoko wa toire desu.

Over there is the toilet.

We can also use the construction below.

(something) wa (location word) desu.

Example:

トイレはあそこです。

toire wa asoko desu.

The toilet is over there.

To ask a location in Japanese, we can use the construction below.

(place) wa doko desu ka?

Example:

トイレはどこですか?

toire wa doko desu ka?

Where is the toilet?

(person) wa doko ni imasu ka?

Example:

田中さんはどこに居ますか?

Tanaka-san wa doko ni imasu ka?

Where is Tanaka?

(thing) wa doko ni arimasu ka?

Example:

本はどこに有りますか?

Hon wa doko ni arimasu ka?

Where is the book?

To ask where is something specifically, we can use the construction below.

(location word) wa (something) desu ka?

roughly can be translated as "Is that the (something) in (location)?"

or

(something) wa (location word) desu ka?

roughly can be translated as "Is the (something) in (location)?"

Example:

あそこはトイレですか?

Asoko wa toire desu ka?

Is that a toilet over there?

トイレはあそこですか?

Toire wa asoko desu ka?

Is the toilet over there?

Just like when we want to use the time in a sentence, we also use the particle に/ni to show a location in a sentence.

Example:

学校に行きます。

gakkou ni ikimasu.

I go to school.

That is all for our discussion today regarding using time and location in Japanese. To make it easy for you to remember, you should try it yourself on your own sentences.

Source of the Pictures:

https://www.irasutoya.com/