Telling Time in Chinese

"Time is money." We've all heard that quote, but what good is it if you can't tell time? Thankfully, I'm here to help you in your battle with the clock in Chinese. First of all, you should know how to ask for the time:

现在几点? (xiàn zài jǐ diǎn) – What time is it?

Telling time in Chinese is quite easy, so long as you know how to count. To tell the time on the hour (小时 – xiǎo shí), you simply say:

现在(number 1-12)点 (xiàn zài # diǎn) – It's ___ o'clock.

For example, 现在八点 (xiàn zài bā diǎn) – It's 8 o'clock.

Well, we don't always get so lucky where the time is right on the hour, so how can we count those pesky minutes (分钟 – fēn zhōng)? Simply add the number of minutes past the hour to the end of the sentence. Adding the character 分 is optional, and is not really used in oral Chinese. Here are a few examples:

三点十分 (sān diǎn shí fēn) – 3:10

五点二十 (wǔ diǎn èr shí) – 5:20

Easy enough, right? But in English, we also have handy sayings such as: a quarter to, half past, ten til, etc. How about in Chinese? Of course! Here are some more useful words and phrases for telling time:

一刻 (yí kè) – a quarter

半 (bàn) – half past

差 (chà) - to/until

To see these in action, let's look at two examples of how to say "9:15″ in Chinese:

九点一刻 (jiǔ diǎn yí kè) – a quarter past 9

九点十五 (jiǔ diǎn shí wǔ) – 9:15

Later on in the hour, here are three different ways to say "9:45″:

九点四十五 (jiǔ diǎn sì shí wǔ) – 9:45

九点三刻 (jiǔ diǎn sān kè) – 3 quarters after 9(this is very rarely used, but it's good to know anyways)

差十五十点 (chà shí wǔ shí diǎn)- 15 minutes to 5

And how would you say "half past nine", you might ask? Well that's really easy:

九点半 (jiǔ diǎn bàn) – half past nine

Now that you've got a basic understanding of how to ask for and tell the time, here are some more questions you can use to ask about specific activities:

你几点起床？ (nǐ jǐ diǎn qǐ chuáng) – What time do you get up?

你几点工作？ (nǐ jǐ diǎn gōng zuò) – What time do you go to work?

As you can see, it's a pretty simple formula: 你几点 (do something)? Answering the questions is also a piece of cake:

我八点起床 (wǒ bā diǎn qǐ chuáng) – I get up at 8 o'clock.

我十点半工作 (wǒ shí diǎn bàn gōng zuò) – I work at 10:30.

Now that you know how to ask and tell the time, do some practice – it's easy! Try to say the following things in Chinese, without using a dictionary:

• It's 7:10.
• It's a quarter past 4.
• It's half past 10.
• It's 10 til 2.
• What time do you eat breakfast?
• I go to bed at 11 o'clock.

While you're at it, check out our Byki Deluxe software, which can help build your vocabulary in a fun and easy way. If that's not enough for you, here's a video I made a while back about telling time in Chinese, to give you some more practice:

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