How to Say Time in Chinese – Hour, Minutes, Seconds?

How to say Time in Chinese? Time in Mandarin is 时间 Shíjiān.To say the Time – Hour, Minutes, Seconds in Chinese, you must be familiar with the numbers in Chinese from 1 to 60. We will discuss in detail the various segments about time in Chinese.

Related Post: How to Say Date – Year, Month, Day and Days of the Week in Chinese.

How to Ask for Time in Chinese?

» Polite Way to Ask Strangers

When you are outside and forget to bring your watch, how do you ask for the Time in Chinese from a stranger? If you want to interrupt people to ask a question, you can use the phrase 不好意思 Bù hǎoyìsi which means “Excuse me / Pardon” or “I am sorry to have disturbed you”.

请问 Qǐngwèn means “May I” and is a polite form to use when asking a question. In the two sentences below, with or without the word 钟 Zhōng mean the same.

 

» Casual Way to Ask Friends

When you are in a casual environment with your friend, you do not have to say out the full sentences above as they are more formal. Shorten them and ask “(现在)几点了？(Xiànzài) jǐ diǎnle?” or “几点钟了？Jǐ diǎn zhōngle?“

Telling Time in Chinese

Telling Time in Day or Night

Note that when telling time in Chinese, you do not have to mention the period if the time is understood in a logical sense. You emphasise it when you want to highlight whether it is daytime or night-time in writing or specific circumstances.

For example, you work at 9 pm. Then, you say specifically the time “I work at 9 pm. 我晚上9点工作。Wǒ wǎnshàng 9 diǎn gōngzuò”. Otherwise, people would assume it to be 9 am if you had mentioned “I work at nine. 我9点工作。Wǒ 9 diǎn gōngzuò”.

 

Saying Digit “2” in Hour, Minutes and Seconds in Chinese

1.  You read the digit 2 as 两 Liǎng and not 二 Èr when you say the Hour in Chinese.
2. On the contrary, if you want to tell the Minutes and Seconds in Mandarin, you say it as 二 Èr and not 两 Liǎng. Say the “Two” according to how you would read the Chinese Numeral 2.

Quarter Placement of Minutes in Chinese

1. For 15 minutes in the Minute placement – 14:15, you say it as 两点十五分 Liǎng diǎn shíwǔ fēn or 两点一刻 Yīkè which means one quarter.
2. For 30 minutes placement – 14:30, you say 两点半 Liǎng diǎn bàn.
3. For 45 minutes – 14:45, you express it as 两点四十五分 Liǎng diǎn sìshíwǔ fēn.

In conclusion, 一刻 Yīkè only applies to the first quarter of any other hour in Chinese.

Vocabulary Relating to Time in Chinese

Let us learn some basic useful vocabulary relating to Time in Chinese which you can describe in daily life. They are also used in the Mandarin sentences below to reinforce your understanding.

• Time-Related Words

 

• Different Times of Day

How to Say “Hour” in Chinese?

Using Right Word for Hours in Chinese

If you notice in the table above, the Hours in Chinese have four different names – 点，时，小时，钟头.

1. 小时 Xiǎoshí and 钟头 Zhōngtóu are nouns and have the same meaning.

    We will have a meeting 1 hour later.
    我们一个(小时 / 钟头)后开会。
    Wǒmen yīgè (xiǎoshí / zhōngtóu) hòu kāihuì.

2. When saying the Hour in Chinese, always use the word 点 Diǎn above all else.

    The time is now 5.25 pm.
    现在是5点25分。
    Xiànzài shì 5 diǎn 25 fēn.

3. We only use the single word 时 Shí for formal writing and never in a conversation. 11 am to 1 pm 11时 – 13时.

Chinese Time Format

You can write the time in 24-hours time format such as 19:35 on paper, but we never express the Hour in Chinese as 19（十九点）in talking. Instead, we convert the 24-hour to 12-hour time format in Chinese. Hence, we will say 7点 45分 or 晚上 7点 45分。

 

How to Say “Minutes” in Chinese?

Expressing Minutes When Telling Time in Chinese

Minutes in Chinese is 分 fēn and more straightforward to express compare to ‘hour’ which more Chinese terms to learn. To reiterate, 一刻 Yīkè or 十五分 Shíwǔ fēn is how you would say the minutes of the time xx:15. 12.10 pm would be 十二点十分.

Expressing Minutes as a Duration in Chinese

To use Minutes in Chinese as a noun for expressing a duration, you have to end it with a Chinese word 钟 Zhōng – 十五分钟 or x分钟. The exception is 30 minutes or half an hour which we say either 半个小时 Bàn gè xiǎoshí, 半个钟头 Bàn gè zhōngtóu or 三十分钟 Sānshí fēnzhōng.

Another way to say the duration is to add 时间 Shíjiān after 分钟. “Give me 20 minutes’ time. 给我二十分钟(的)时间。 Gěi wǒ èrshí fēnzhōng (de) shíjiān”.

If you think it is confusing, here is a summary to say Minutes in Chinese.

• When you tell the time, always say it with 分 without the 钟.
• To mention a duration, use 分钟.

How to Say “Seconds” in Chinese?

For indicating seconds of the time in Chinese, we use 秒 Miǎo. For the noun, we use 秒钟 Miǎo zhōng. However, there are more exceptions for ‘seconds’ than ‘minutes’ because we do not always use 秒钟 as a noun. The word 钟 Zhōng is quite insignificant here.

Similar to the formula of ‘Minutes in Chinese’ above, when we say 20 seconds’ time 二十秒(的)时间 Èrshí miǎo (de) shíjiān, it is also another way to express it as a noun or duration.

If you are not sure whether to use 秒 or 秒钟, it is not a big deal. In many Chinese sentence construction, both can be correct. When in doubt, use 秒钟 Miǎo zhōng as a noun.

When there is a decimal point after the Seconds in Chinese, read the number as an individual numeral and not as a double-digit number.

Enquiring on Time in Chinese: How Long and How  Many Hours / Minutes / Seconds?

We can also ask questions on the time length or amount of time with 多久，多长时间. For enquiring hours, minutes and seconds, we use 几 in front of the term that you want to know.

How long, What is the length of time?	多久，多长时间	Duōjiǔ, Duō cháng shíjiān
Hours	几个小时，几个钟头	Jǐ gè xiǎoshí, Jǐ gè zhōngtóu
Minutes	几分钟	Jǐ fēnzhōng
Seconds	几秒，几秒钟	Jǐ miǎo, Jǐ miǎo zhōng

More Examples of Time in Chinese

Here are more examples of the time and the period used with what we have learned.

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Hope that you have benefitted from this long post on telling Time in Chinese. Check out the related articles below on saying Date in Chinese.