Learn how to tell time in Chinese, whether it is AM or PM. Be able to say o'clock and minute in Chinese and learn some useful Time Words in Chinese.
……diǎn……fēn ……点……分 ...o'clock...minute
(1) To tell time in Chinese, we use this structure:
(2) If the minute is more than one character, the character 分 can often be dropped.
(3) If the minute is only one digit, meaning less than 10. The "zero" cannot be dropped.
shíjiāncí 时间词 Time Words in Chinese are special and can be considered as in their own category. Even though they are basically nouns that refer to a certain time or a certain amount of time, such as yesterday, morning, Monday, one hour, one month...
We learned two Time Words in Chinese in Lesson 11.1: 早上 and 晚上. In today's lesson, we will learn more of them because Time Words can tell whether it is AM or PM in Chinese. Here are some of the most common Time Words in Chinese. The hours they suggest is vague and not accurate; they only show what hour range each Time Word generally refers to:
zǎoshang 早上 |
shàngwǔ 上午 |
zhōngwǔ 中午 |
xiàwǔ 下午 |
wǎnshàng 晚上 |
≈ 6 AM - 9 AM |
≈ 9 AM - 11 AM |
≈ 11 AM - 1 PM |
≈ 1 PM - 6,7 PM |
≈ 7 PM - 12 AM |
And if we want to tell whether it is AM or PM in Chinese, we use this structure:
Here are some examples:
èr 二 vs. liǎng 两
There are two ways to say the number two in Chinese: 二 and 两. Sometimes we can use both, sometimes only 二 is appropriate and sometimes only 两 is appropriate. For mathematical usage, to say the number two in Chinese, 二 is generally used. To tell time in Chinese, for o'clock we have to say 两点 instead of 二点. However, for minute, if it's two minutes pass x o'clock, both 零两分 and 零二分 is okay to say.
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