Learn how to talk about time duration in Japanese
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| Jessi: Time Duration: Hours and Minutes. Hi everyone and welcome to appendix lesson 5. In this lesson, you will learn how to express time duration in Japanese. Time duration refers to how long something takes. First, we will focus on minutes and hours. |
| Naomi: We focused on how to tell time in previous appendix lessons. So Jessi, could you tell us how this lesson is different? |
| Jessi: Good point. So before, you learned how to tell time but now, we will be talking about how long something takes. For example, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, one hour et cetera. We will actually be using the forms that we learned before. |
| Naomi: Sounds good. Let’s start with the hours. |
| Jessi: First, do you remember how to tell the time? We covered this in appendix lesson 2. To tell the hour, we simply add the word 時 (ji) to the number. So 1 o’clock would be |
| Naomi: 一時 (ichi-ji) |
| Jessi: So to say 1 hour, we add 間 (kan) to that. So one hour would be |
| Naomi: 一時間 (ichi-jikan) |
| Jessi: Did you get that? To say hour, you just add 間 (kan) to 1 o’clock. |
| Naomi: Right. 一時(ichi-ji) 1 o’clock becomes 一時間 (ichi-jikan) 1 hour. |
| Jessi: Let’s try another one 2 o’clock is 二時 (ni-ji). To say two hours, you need to add 間 (kan) to it. So two hours is |
| Naomi: 二時間 (ni-jikan) |
| Jessi: Right. So how would you say five hours? |
| Naomi: 五時 (go-ji) is 5 o'clock. So 五時間(go-jikan) is five hours. |
| Jessi: 十時 (jū-ji) is 10 o’clock. So 10 hours would be... |
| Naomi: 十時間 (jū-jikan) |
| Jessi: And so on. So Naomi-sensei? |
| Naomi: はい。(Hai) |
| Jessi: How do you say how many hours? |
| Naomi: 何時間 。(Nan-jikan) 何時 (Nan-ji) is what and 時間 (jikan) is the counter for hours in this case. So 何時間 (nan-jikan) is how many hours. To make a question, you could ask 何時間ですか。(nan-jikan desu ka) |
| Jessi: How many hours does it take? So don’t forget that when talking about hours, you need to add the 間 (kan). Okay, and now let’s move on to the minutes. Do you remember how to say the minutes? We add |
| Naomi: 分 (fun) |
| Jessi: To the number but there are many sound changes. So sometimes, it comes out as (pun). For example, 1 minute when telling time is |
| Naomi: 一分 (ippun) |
| Jessi: So to say 1 minute as a length of time, we add 間 (kan) to that. One minute would be |
| Naomi: 一分間 (ippun-kan) |
| Jessi: Two minutes as in for two minutes is |
| Naomi: 二分間 (ni-fun-kan) |
| Jessi: Five minutes as in for five minutes is |
| Naomi: 五分間 (go-fun-kan) |
| Jessi: 10 minutes as in for 10 minutes is |
| Naomi: 十分間 (juppun-kan) or (jippun-kan) |
| Jessi: And so on. |
| Naomi: How many minutes is 何分間 (nan pun-kan) or (nan fun-kan). So, to ask a question, you could say 何分間ですか。 (nan pun-kan desu ka.) |
| Jessi: How many minutes does it take? Now, I will let you in on a secret. When talking about how many minutes something takes, the 間 (kan) is actually optional. |
| Naomi: That’s right. For minutes, it doesn’t matter if you use it or not. |
| Jessi: Right. So remember that well for hours, you need to add 間 (kan). You don’t need to add it while talking about minutes. |
| Naomi: Well, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Jessi: See you next time. |
| Naomi: じゃ、また。(Ja, mata.) |
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