10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?

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How to tell time using the clock in

Mandarin Chinese?
By: Lina Shen Fri Aug 30 2024

MANDARIN CHINESE Numerals

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?

When to use the word 分 (fēn, “minute”)?

When the minute is under 10

How to ask for the time?

How to divide the hour: Half hours & quarter hours?

Half hours

Quarter hours

How to distinguish a.m. and p.m. in Mandarin?

No prepositions when telling time

Summary

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10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?

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 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) .

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
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10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?

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
2:30
liǎng diǎn bàn

八点半
8:30
bā diǎn bàn

十一点半
11:30
shí yī diǎn bàn

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
7:15 (a quarter past 7)
qī diǎn guò yí kè

五点差一刻
4:45 (a quarter to 5)
wǔ diǎn chà yí kè

三点过一刻
3:15 (a quarter past 3)
sān diǎn guò yí kè

六点差一刻
5:45 (a quarter to 6)
liù diǎn chà yí kè

过
past
guò

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10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?

差 to (literally “less”)

chà

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
a quarter past 8
bā diǎn yí kè

两点一刻
a quarter past 2
liǎng diǎn yí kè

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

凌晨三点
dawn 凌晨 líng chén (líng chén sān diǎn)
3 o’clock at dawn (in the morning) / 3 am

早上八点半
early
早上 zǎo shang (zǎo shang bā diǎn bàn)
morning
8:30 am(used for the period between 5am - 9am)

morning 上午 shàng wǔ 上午十一点零五(分)

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10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin Chinese?

English Mandarin Pinyin Example

(shàng wǔ shí yī diǎn líng wǔ (fēn))

11:05 in the morning

中午十二点一刻
noon 中午 zhōng wǔ (zhōng wǔ shí èr diǎn yí kè)
12:15 at noon

下午两点四十五(分)
(xià wǔ liǎng diǎn sì shí wǔ (fēn))
afternoon 下午 xià wǔ
2:45 in the afternoon
(used for the period between 1pm - 6pm)

傍晚六点十分
evening 傍晚 bàng wǎn (bàng wǎn liù diǎn shí fēn)
6:10 pm

晚上十点三十五(分)
(wǎn shang shí diǎn sān shí wǔ (fēn))
night 晚上 wǎn shang
10:35 at night

(used for the period between 6pm - 10 pm but it can also be used to re

午夜十二点
midnight 午夜 wǔ yè (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.

我们早上九点见。
I will see you at nine o’clock in
Wǒmen zǎo shang jiǔ diǎn
the morning.
jiàn.
Remember: The bigger time unit always
precedes the smaller time unit!
我们中午去公园吧。
Wǒmen zhōng wǔ qù gōng Let’s go to the park at noon.

yuán ba.

我下午四点下班。
I get off work at 4 pm.
Wǒ xià wǔ sì diǎn xià bān.

Summary
Remember the keys for expressing time in Chinese:

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10/1/24, 6:49 PM How to tell time using the clock in Mandarin 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

Meet the Author

Lina Shen

Lina is an experienced Chinese Mandarin teacher with a BA in English and a

senior professional certification in teaching Chinese to foreign learners.

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adventure, join Mango on social!

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