Time in Japanese // Days, Weeks, Months & Seasons (With FREE Quiz)

Q: How do you say Summer in Japanese?

Summer in Japanese is 夏 which is spoken as natsu .

By Max Hobbs
Learn Japanese
November 3, 2021
4 Comments

Let’s Talk Time in Japanese ⏰ Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks & More

Today we are going to learn some really useful phrases related to time in Japanese.

We’ll teach you how easy it is to learn the months in Japanese, the different seasons and times of the day, coupled with beautiful flashcards which you are free to download and use yourself!

Remember, you can learn Japanese online with us 24 hours of the day, with Flexi Classes.

Our Japanese courses are becoming more and more popular and we even have a class related to times and dates so you can enhance your knowledge on this topic even further.

Anyway, enough of that, on with the lesson!

Time in Japanese | Minutes & Hours
Time in Japanese | Days of the Week in Japanese
Time in Japanese | Other Vocabulary Related To Days
Time in Japanese | Months in Japanese
Time in Japanese | Seasons in Japanese
BONUS | FREE Quiz
Time in Japanese | FAQ’s

Time in Japanese | Minutes & Hours

Let’s learn a key phrase to start off.

What is the time in Japanese is 今何时ですか (ima nanji desu ka)

Now of course you’ll need to know the numbers in Japanese to tell the time, and we’d assume you know them already?

If not, no fear… check out our complete guide to Japanese numbers.

Japanese Numbers // Your Complete Guide (With Quiz Included)

DO NOT WORRY – learning Japanese numbers is not so difficult. Learning the numbers in Japanese can also open up some unexpected doors.

So to tell them time we simply need to attach 時 (ji) to the number and your job is done!

3 o’clock | 三時 (san-ji)
7 o’clock | 七時 (shichi-ji)
9 o’clock | 九時 (ku-ji)

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
1 o’clock	一時	いちじ	ichi-ji
2 o’clock	二時	にじ	ni-ji
3 o’clock	三時	さんじ	san-ji
4 o’clock	四時	よじ	yo-ji
5 o’clock	五時	ごじ	go-ji
6 o’clock	六時	ろくじ	roku-ji
7 o’clock	七時	しちじ	shichi-ji
8 o’clock	八時	はちじ	hachi-ji
9 o’clock	九時	くじ	ku-ji
10 o’clock	十時	じゅうじ	jū-ji
11 o’clock	十一時	じゅういちじ	jū ichi-ji
12 o’clock	十二時	じゅうにじ	jū ni-ji

Delving further deeper, what if we wanted to talk about the minutes as well as the hours?

分 which is spoken as fun or pun means minute.

Therefore, let’s say we wanted to say the time was 3.50, we would say

3时 50分 (san-ji go-juppun)

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
1 minute	一分	いっぷん	ippun
2 minutes	二分	にふん	ni-fun
3 minutes	三分	さんぷん	san-pun
4 minutes	四分	よんふん	yon-fun
5 minutes	五分	ごふん	go-fun
6 minutes	六分	ろっぷん	roppun
7 minutes	七分	ななふん	nana-fun
8 minutes	八分	はっぷん	happun
9 minutes	九分	きゅうふん	kyū-fun
10 minutes	十分	じゅっぷん	juppun
20 minutes	二十分	にじゅっぷん	ni-juppun
30 minutes	三十分	さんじゅっぷん	san-juppun
40 minutes	四十分	よんじゅっぷん	yon-juppun
50 minutes	五十分	ごじゅっぷん	go-juppun

To finish this section, here are some more useful phrases you’ll use regularly when speaking Japanese.

English	Kanji	Hiragana	Reading
AM	午前	ごぜん	gozen
PM	午后	ごご	gogo
morning	朝	あさ	asa
early morning	早朝	そうちょう	sōchō
sunrise	日の出	ひので	hinode
midday	日中	にっちゅう	nicchū
early evening	夕方	ゆうがた	yūgata
night	夜	よる	yoru
midnight	深夜	しんや	shin’ya

Time in Japanese | Days of the Week in Japanese

Japanese days of the week all end in youbi so that’s the first thing you’ll want to remember!

Japanese	Kanji	English
getsu yôbi	月曜日	Monday
ka yôbi	火曜日	Tuesday
sui yôbi	水曜日	Wednesday
moku yôbi	木曜日	Thursday
kin yôbi	金曜日	Friday
do yôbi	土曜日	Saturday
nichi yôbi	日曜日	Sunday

The days of the week in Japanese actually have an interesting origin.

The days of the week are named after the seven celestial bodies of our solar system known in Antiquity.

The Sun
The Moon
The Planets (Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn)

Can you guess which is named after the Sun?

Not too difficult right? SUNDAY.

日 means Sun in Japanese so 日曜日 (nichi yôbi) is Sunday.

Time in Japanese | Other Vocabulary Related To Days

We now know the days of the week in Japanese but what about if we want to use words like:

Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow

Let’s run you through some more key words in Japanese you’ll be using everyday!

If you are a learner of Mandarin, you’ll notice a lot of the Kanji crossover with the Hanzi in Mandarin.

Although these look the same do be aware they are spoken completely differently.

You’ll also notice with Japanese that Kanji can have more than one pronunciation. You would indeed be correct.

This is because every Kanji has to different pronunciations, these are called on’yomi and kun’yomi.

That’s a lesson for another day though!

BONUS BLOGS
Learn the Days, Weeks and Months in Mandarin
Discover why Kanji & Hanzi aren’t always as similar as they seem

Hanzi vs Kanji // Japanese Kanji NOT To Use in Chinese

Hanzi vs Kanji // Japanese and Chinese have a long history of sharing characters with each other, but it’s not always as simple as that. Find out why…

Time in Japanese // Months in Japanese

Learning the months in Japanese is a piece of cake!

Once again, it boils down to the numbers. If you know 1-12 in Japanese, then you’re already half way there.

To complete the months, we just need to add the word 月 gatsu.

Can you guess what January and March are in Japanese?

As January and March are the 1st and 3rd months they are spoken as:

January | 一月 (ichi-gatsu)
March | 三月 (san-gatsu)

It could not be easier, right?! Simply the number of the month followed by 月!

Our friend Layla shows us how it’s done:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSjoyxnF5FM/

Time in Japanese // Seasons in Japanese

A question we often get asked is what’s our favourite season and why.

Therefore we thought we’d finish today’s lesson by teaching you the four seasons in Japanese.

Once again, you’ll notice a crossover with the Mandarin and Japanese written script if you study Chinese too!

Kanji	Hiragana	Reading	English
春	はる	haru	Spring
夏	なつ	natsu	Summer
秋	あき	aki	Autumn
冬	ふゆ	huyu	Winter
季节	きせつ	kisetsu	Season
四季	しき	shiki	The four seasons

Time in Japanese // FREE QUIZ

So that’s all you need to know about the minutes, hours, days, months and everything related to time in Japanese.

Now it’s time to see how much you remembered!

We have prepared a quick-fire 20 question quiz. The results are instant and it’s great practice.

If you scored well, why not comment below with your final score!

Time in Japanese // FAQ’s

How do you say what’s the time in Japanese?

What is the time in Japanese is 今何时ですか (ima nanji desu ka)

How do you tell the time in Japanese?

It’s super easy once you know the numbers.

To tell them time we simply need to attach 時 (ji) to the number and your job is done!

3 o’clock | 三時 (san-ji)

7 o’clock | 七時 (shichi-ji)

9 o’clock | 九時 (ku-ji)

How do you say Sunday in Japanese?

Sunday in Japanese is 日曜日 (nichi yôbi).

How do you learn the months in Japanese?

Learning the months in Japanese is a piece of cake!

Once again, it boils down to the numbers. If you know 1-12 in Japanese, then you’re already half way there.

To complete the months, we just need to add the word 月 gatsu.

Can you guess what January and March are in Japanese?

As January and March are the 1st and 3rd months they are spoken as:

January | 一月 (ichi-gatsu)

March | 三月 (san-gatsu)

It could not be easier, right?! Simply the number of the month followed by 月!

How do you say Summer in Japanese?

Summer in Japanese is 夏 which is spoken as natsu.

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