Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

Jessi: Time Duration: Days, Weeks, Months and Years. Hi everyone, welcome to appendix lesson 6.
Naomi: In the last appendix, you learned how to talk about time duration in minutes and hours.
Jessi: And now in this lesson, we will be talking about longer time durations. If you remember from the last appendix lesson, we used the word
Naomi: 間 (kan)
Jessi: To talk about length of time and we will be using that word again this time. First, let’s start with the days. Do you remember how to say the days?
Naomi: The days 1 through 10 are special words that must be memorized.
Jessi: Right. We add 間 (kan) to those words to talk about length of time. When talking about dates, the word for the first was 一日 (tsuitachi) but when talking about length of time, we don’t use this word. Instead, we say
Naomi: 一日 (ichi-nichi)
Jessi: And attach 間 (kan). So one day would be
Naomi: 一日間 (ichi-nichi-kan)
Jessi: The word for the second as in the second day is
Naomi: 二日 (futsuka)
Jessi: So two days as in for two days is?
Naomi: 二日間 (futsuka-kan)
Jessi: The third as in the third day is 三日 (mikka).
Jessi: So three days as in for three days is
Naomi: 三日間 (mikka-kan)
Jessi: And so on. Next we have the weeks. To talk about a number of weeks, we put the word for week.
Naomi: 週間 (shū-kan)
Jessi: After the number. So one week would be
Naomi: 一週間 (isshū-kan)
Jessi: And please be careful. It’s not (isū-kan) but (isshū-kan). There is a small (tsu), a small stop sound in it. Can we hear it again?
Naomi: 一週間 (isshū-kan)
Jessi: Two weeks would be
Naomi: 二週間 (ni-shū-kan)
Jessi: Three weeks would be
Naomi: 三週間 (san-shū-kan)
Jessi: And so on. There are a couple of sound changes in there like (isshū-kan) for one week and (hasshū-kan) for eight weeks. So make sure that you study the chart. Next we have months and years. Now, I will let you in on another secret. When talking about length of time in months and years, the 間 (kan) is optional.
Naomi: Right. In the examples we give however, we will keep the 間 (kan).
Jessi: So let’s start with the months. Now, these words don’t have any relation to the names of the months. Instead, we add the counter か月 (kagetsu) plus 間 (kan) after the number to talk about a number of months. So one month would be
Naomi: 一か月間 (ikkagetsu-kan)
Jessi: Two months would be
Naomi: 二か月間 (ni-kagetsu-kan)
Jessi: Three months would be
Naomi: 三か月間 (san-kagetsu-kan)
Jessi: And so on. There are some irregular ones here too such as six months
Naomi: 六か月間 (rokkagetsu-kan)
Jessi: There is a small (tsu) in there, a stop sound. 六か月(rokkagetsu). Another irregular one is eight months which is
Naomi: 八か月間。 (hakkagetsu-kan) But some people say (hachi-kagetsu-kan). Both are commonly used. I personally say (hachi-kagetsu-kan)
Jessi: So Naomi-sensei, how do you say how many months?
Naomi: 何か月間 (nan kagetsu-kan). So to ask a question, you could say 何か月間ですか。(nan kagetsu-kan desu ka)
Jessi: Lastly we have the years. We add the word for year 年 (nen) to the number and then we can add 間 (kan). So one year would be
Naomi: 一年間 (ichi-nen-kan)
Jessi: Two years would be
Naomi: 二年間 (ni-nen-kan)
Jessi: Three years would be
Naomi: 三年間 (san-nen-kan)
Jessi: All right. That’s all for time duration. Make sure to check the lesson notes for the complete lists.
Naomi: In the lesson notes, you can also see the kanji used to write out all of these phrases.
Jessi: That’s all for this lesson. See you next time.
Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.)

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