Some numbers are pronounced in more than one way as shown below (e.g., 4: し or よん). Which pronunciation is used over the other depends on the context. Click on each number to hear the pronunciation.

These numbers without any counter can be used to count people's age above 10 years old. (There are special ways to count the age 0 through 10.)

A dash in the telephone (-) is read as の. The particle の is used to group digits in a telephone number as in "428 の 1357." Click on the play button to hear its pronunciation.

Note that telephone numbers are often pronounced at a steady pace (2-syllable for each number). This means digit 2 (two) and digit 5 (five) are usually pronounced with a double vowel, にい and ごお respectively, to equal the length of pronunciation of other digits.

なんばん ("what number?") consists of the question word なん ("what") and the counter for numbers ばん ("the number"). ばん is used to count ordinal numbers as in いちばん ("the first" or "the number one"). When asking or giving telephone numbers, the counter ばん is optional. Click on the numbers to hear the pronunciation.

Let's learn to count up to 99. Study the following chart.

To ask what time it is, we use the question word なんじ "What time?" Transportation schedules commonly use 24-hour reference system. (Caution: 17:00 is pronounced as じゅうななじ, but 7 p.m. is しちじ and it is NEVER pronounced as ななじ in daily conversation.)

れいじ	0:00	じゅうごじ	15:00	じゅうはちじ	18:00
じゅうさんじ	13:00	じゅうろくじ	16:00	じゅうくじ	19:00
じゅうよじ	14:00	じゅうななじ	17:00	にじゅうじ	20:00

To tell the time in minutes, we add the time counter-suffix ふん to the numeral. For example, "five minutes" is ごふん. The pronunciation for "tens" changes from じゅう to じゅっ when the time counter ふん is added. The counter itself changes from ふん to ぷん following tens as shown below.

ご	じゅう	ふん	→	ごじゅっぷん
five	tens	minutes		50 min.

There is no いち ("one") for 10 minutes.

The following illustrates the time expressions that combine hours and minutes. はん as in さんじはん (3:30) below means "half." Click on the time to hear the pronunciation.

Finally, to tell exact time on the clock, the counter ふん is used as follows. Note that ふん changes to ぷん in some cases. ( below marks such irregular forms. Note that the sound changes are from a /h/ sound to a /p/ sound.)

	1	いっ ぷん	h → p
	2	に ふん
	3	さん ぷん	h → p
	4	よん ぷん	h → p
	5	ご ふん
	6	ろっぷん	h → p
	7	ななふん
	8	はっぷん or はちふん	h → p
	9	きゅうふん

ごろ and ぐらい are suffixes to indicate approximation of time ("about" or "approximately"). ごろ is limited to approximating clock time (NOT duration of time). In contrast, ぐらい is used for approximating length of time as well as non-time-related expressions.

	Num + Counter ごろ	Num + Counter ぐらい
Clock Time	よじごろです。	よじぐらいです。	It's about 4 o'clock.
Length of Time	Not used	３０ぷんぐらいです。	It's about 30 minutes.
Order	Not used	１０ばんぐらいです。	It's about number 10.

FYI: In casual conversation, ぐらい may be used as general approximation for everything including clock time expressions (３じぐらい rather than the officially correct ３じごろ). However, this will be marked incorrect in formal tests like JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

じかん is the duration counter for hours. Be careful with the pronunciation for four hours (It's よじかん, not よんじかん).

1.	いち	じかん	one hour
2.	に	じかん	two hours
3.	さん	じかん	three hours
4.	よ	じかん	four hours
5.	ご	じかん	five hours
6.	ろく	じかん	six hours
7.	しち or なな	じかん	seven hours
8.	はち	じかん	eight hours
9.	く	じかん	nine hours
10.	じゅう	じかん	ten hours
	なん	じかん	how many hours?

にほんごの クラスは ごご１じです。そのクラスは １じかんぐらいです。
The Japanese class is at one o'clock p.m. That class is about one hour.

ふん or ぷん is the duration counter for minutes. This works exactly the same way as descibed previously. かん can be optionally attached after ふん or ぷん for lengh in minutes.

1.	じゅっ	ぷん（かん）	ten minutes
2.	にじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	twenty minutes
3.	さんじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	thirty minutes
4.	よんじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	forty minutes
5.	ごじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	fifty minutes
6.	ろくじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	sixty minutes
7.	ななじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	seventy minutes
8.	はちじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	eighty minutes
9.	きゅうじゅっ	ぷん（かん）	ninety minutes
?	なん	ぷん（かん）	how many minutes?

あさ or "morning" is from dawn till noon. The greeting word during this time frame is おはよう(ございます).

ひる or "afternoon" is from noon to right before dusk. ひるの１２じ means 12 noon. The greeting word during this time frame is こんにちは. (Note that the last hiragana は is pronounced as /wa/, not /ha/.

ゆうがた or "late afternoon" roughly refers to the time when the sun is setting. The greeting word during this time frame is also こんにちは.

よる or "evening" starts after dark. よるの１２じ means 12 midnight. The greeting after dark is こんばんは and おやすみ(なさい). (は in こんばんは is pronounced as /wa/, not /ha/.)

To say "3:00 a.m.", you say ごぜん さんじ, not さんじ ごぜん. The same word order rule applies to ごご ("p.m."). To say "7 o'clock in the morning," you say あさ(の)７じ, not ７じ あさ. Except for ごぜん and ごご, the particle の is required.

Time of day	p	num	じ
ごぜん／ごご		６	じ	6 a.m./p.m.
あさ／よる	の	７	じ	7 o'clock in the morning/evening
ひる／よる	の	１２	じ	12 noon/midnight
あさ／ゆうがた	の	５	じ	5 o'clock in the morning/(late) afternoon

The あります verb we learned earlier can be used to state the time of organized activities (often involving multiple participants) such as classes, meetings, part-time jobs, etc. A1 below asks WHAT organized activities does the listener have at a given time by using Timeに Xが あります pattern.

To respond to a Yes-No question, one can answer by simply saying ええ、あります or いいえ、ありません as shown in B1 and B2 below. (FYI: You cannot use ええ、そうです or いいえ、そうじゃありません here. The latter ones are used in response to noun sentences only.)

If you need to qualify your negative answers, the particle は normally replaces が as shown in (B3) below. If what's negated is not the subject as shown in (B4) below, the particle は is added. (This は is called the "contrastive は." We will discuss this in more details in JAPN 1002.)

Instead of the person, organized activities can become the topic of the sentence. The verb sentence can be rephrased as a shorter noun sentence by replacing the に あります with です.

Topic	は	Time	に	あります。
クラス	は	ごご１じ	に	あります。	The class is at one p.m.
クラス	は	ごご１じ	です。		[Short version; The particle に must be deleted.]

The following examples show other possible topics besides organized activities. Note that the second half of the sentence is no longer limited to just Timeに あります.

Topic	は
きょう	は	クラス	が	あります。	Today, there is a class.
日本	は	いま ごご１１じ	です。		In Japan, it is 11 p.m. now.

 

Two particles から ("from") and まで ("to/till") can be used to discuss the time something starts and the time it ends. Both ～です and ～あります can be used to discuss the schedule of this kind. (The particle に is not needed for the verb あります if you use から and まで.)

Topic は	Time	から	Time	まで
日本ごのクラスは	９じ	から	１０じ	まで	です。	The Japanese class is from 9 to 10.
ミーティングは	３じ	から	４じ	まで	あります。	The meeting is from 3 to 4.