When the time is exactly 10 minutes after the hour, for example, 3:10, 7:10, and so on, 分 (fēn, minute) cannot be omitted: 三点十分 (sān diǎn shí fēn, three ten) , 七点十分 (qī diǎn shí fēn, seven ten) .
Mandarin Chinese Articles
How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?
By: Lina Shen Thu Jan 04 2024
Mandarin chineseNumerals
Telling time in Mandarin is basically the same as telling time in English; if you know how to count, then you can learn to tell time. When reading 9:36, for example, you:
say the number before the colon (9)
use the word 点 (diǎn, o’clock) to represent the colon
say the number after the colon (36).
Easy, right?
In this post, we will discuss how to tell or ask for the time, and also how to say whether it’s 9:36 in the morning or 9:36 at night. Let’s jump in!
Table of Contents
How to tell time in Mandarin Chinese?
To tell time in Mandarin, you need to know how to count and you need to add the Mandarin equivalent of “o’clock,” or the colon we see in written times in English, such as in “9:30.” In English, time on this clock...
…is read like this: “Nine twenty-one.” If it’s written in numerals, it’s written like this: 9:21.
All we have to do now is understand that the colon in “9:21” is read as 点 (diǎn) (literally: “dot,” also translated as “o’clock”). So the time indicated here is literally “nine dot twenty-one.” Try it!
If you got 九点二十一 (jiǔ diǎn èr shí yī, nine twenty-one), then you’re right!
So, what if someone asks you what time it is, and you look and see that it’s 9:21? Then you know what to do! But what if you look at the time and it’s NOT 9:21? Then you panic? No! You are confident and cool. You see this, and you know what to say:
What do you say?
If you said 四点十七 (sì diǎn shí qī, four-seventeen), very good!
When to use the word 分 (fēn, “minute”)?
When you hear the time spoken aloud, you’re likely to sometimes hear the word 分 (fēn, minute) at the end of the time, such as in 四点十七分 (sì diǎn shí qī fēn, four-seventeen). This literally means “four dot seventeen minutes.”
You can also say, 四点十七 (sì diǎn shí qī, four-seventeen) without 分. Both are equally okay; they mean the same thing.
Exception!
When the minute is under 10
When the minute is under 10, 零 (líng, zero) has to be added after 点 (diân) .
For example: 3:04 is 三点零四 (分) (sān diǎn líng sì (fēn)) . This is something we see in English as well; we would say “three oh four.”
How to ask for the time?
Now, what if you are without a time-telling device and you wish to ask a friendly Chinese-speaking person for the time? You need to say this:
请问，现在几点?
(Qǐng wèn, xiànzài jǐ diǎn? )
Excuse me, what time is it now?
How to divide the hour: Half hours & quarter hours?
Another thing Mandarin has in common with English is that hours are divided into half hours and quarter hours. For example, it is common, when asked for the time, to reply “half past nine” or “a quarter past three.” Even if the words “half” or “quarter” are not used, “nine thirty” or “three fifteen” are still very common ways to divide up the hour when asked about the time.
Let’s see how to do that.
Half hours
Half past 6 is 六点半 (liù diǎn bàn), literally “six dot half.” The “half” of course means half an hour. 6:30 can also be expressed as 六点三十(分) (liù diǎn sān shí (fēn), six thirty (minutes)) but 六点半 (liù diǎn bàn) is more common.
Look at these examples:
两点半 liǎng diǎn bàn | 2:30 |
八点半 bā diǎn bàn | 8:30 |
十一点半 shí yī diǎn bàn | 11:30 |
Tip
When number “2” is used in telling time, we say 两 (liǎng) .
Quarter hours
Now, what if we wanted to divide the hour further, into a quarter? If you said, 百分之25 (bǎi fēn zhī èr shí wǔ) , then great! This does indeed mean a quarter, or more literally, twenty-five percent. But in Mandarin, as in English, we do NOT say “twenty-five percent past four o’clock.”
So, what is a quarter of an hour in Mandarin?
The word for “quarter” of an hour is 刻 (kè) , and to say “a quarter,” you say 一刻 (yí kè).
Look at these examples below and try to figure out which words we use to express a quarter past the hour and a quarter to the hour:
七点过一刻 qī diǎn guò yí kè | 7:15 (a quarter past 7) |
五点差一刻 wǔ diǎn chà yí kè | 4:45 (a quarter to 5) |
三点过一刻 sān diǎn guò yí kè | 3:15 (a quarter past 3) |
六点差一刻 liù diǎn chà yí kè | 5:45 (a quarter to 6) |
过 guò | past |
差 chà | to (literally “less”) |
Did you know?
The Mandarin word 差 (chà) can be translated as “until,” “under,” “less,” “short of,” and “to.” In the context of telling time, it is used exactly the way “to” is used in English:
八点差一刻
(bā diǎn chà yí kè )
a quarter to eight
So far, so good? If so, let’s add a small but completely manageable complication: in spoken Mandarin Chinese, the “past” of “a quarter past seven” (or any other time) is sometimes omitted:
八点一刻 bā diǎn yí kè | a quarter past 8 |
两点一刻 liǎng diǎn yí kè | a quarter past 2 |
Important
BUT when using 差 (chà), as in 五点差一刻 (wǔ diǎn chà yí kè, a quarter to 5), the 差 (chà) must remain in the phrase and cannot be omitted.
How to distinguish a.m. and p.m. in Mandarin?
As you may know, a.m. and p.m. come from Latin (“ante meridiem” and “post meridiem,” respectively). What does Mandarin do to express these notions? Let’s take a look at the table below to see how the day is split up into parts.
Tip
Note about the order of time expressions: The bigger time unit always precedes the smaller time unit! For example, when we say 3 o’clock in the afternoon, “afternoon” is the bigger time unit, and “3 o’clock” is the smaller time unit. It will be expressed as “afternoon 3 o’clock” in Mandarin Chinese: 下午三点 (xià wǔ sān diǎn) .
English | Mandarin | Pinyin | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
dawn | 凌晨 | líng chén | 凌晨三点 (líng chén sān diǎn) 3 o’clock at dawn (in the morning) / 3 am |
early morning | 早上 | zǎo shang | 早上八点半 (zǎo shang bā diǎn bàn) 8:30 am(used for the period between 5am - 9am) |
morning | 上午 | shàng wǔ | 上午十一点零五(分) (shàng wǔ shí yī diǎn líng wǔ (fēn)) 11:05 in the morning |
noon | 中午 | zhōng wǔ | 中午十二点一刻 (zhōng wǔ shí èr diǎn yí kè) 12:15 at noon |
afternoon | 下午 | xià wǔ | 下午两点四十五(分) (xià wǔ liǎng diǎn sì shí wǔ (fēn)) 2:45 in the afternoon |
evening | 傍晚 | bàng wǎn | 傍晚六点十分 (bàng wǎn liù diǎn shí fēn) 6:10 pm |
night | 晚上 | wǎn shang | 晚上十点三十五(分) (wǎn shang shí diǎn sān shí wǔ (fēn)) 10:35 at night |
midnight | 午夜 | wǔ yè | 午夜十二点 (wǔ yè shí èr diǎn) 12 o’clock midnight |
No prepositions when telling time
When expressing time on the clock in English, we use “at,” but no preposition is used here in Mandarin Chinese. | Remember: The bigger time unit always precedes the smaller time unit! | |
我们早上九点见。 Wǒmen zǎo shang jiǔ diǎn jiàn. | I will see you at nine o’clock in the morning. | |
我们中午去公园吧。 Wǒmen zhōng wǔ qù gōng yuán ba. | Let’s go to the park at noon. | |
我下午四点下班。 Wǒ xià wǔ sì diǎn xià bān. | I get off work at 4 pm. | |
Summary
Remember the keys for expressing time in Chinese:
Know how to count.
Know that the colon used when expressing time (12:45) is 点 (diǎn) in Chinese.
Remember that you can put 分 (fēn) at the end of the time (for example, 三点四十二分), but in most cases you don’t have to. It is often omitted.
When it’s about half past the hour, use 半 (bàn) or 三十(分) (sān shí (fēn)) .
Remember that 过 (guò) is “past” and 差 (chà) is “to,” and a quarter of an hour is 刻 (kè).
When you have lots of time units in a sentence (e.g., Half past six in the morning), put the time units in order from biggest to smallest in the sentence as 早上六点半 (zǎo shang liù diǎn bàn).
Now, let’s go practice telling time like a native speaker!
And if you are curious about how to express the date in Mandarin or the past, present, and future, be sure to check our posts!
All done! 朋友们！
Downloadable Resources
Elevate your language-learning journey to new heights with the following downloadable resources.
How to tell time in Mandarin using the clock~Activities
