How to Tell the Time in Chinese

时

候

Now that you know all the one and two digit numbers you can express any time or date. Let's start with the time:

时候

shí hou

. Saying the time is pretty similar to how you would say it in English, simply say the hour and then add

点钟	diǎn zhōng

, which means the same as "o'clock" in English, (or just shorten it to

点

diǎn

). Notice that for 2 o'clock

两

liǎng

is used, but for the 2 in 12 o'clock you use

二

èr

.

Telling Time: On The Hour
one o'clock	一点钟	yī diǎn zhōng
two o'clock	两点钟	liǎng diǎn zhōng
three o'clock	三点钟	sān diǎn zhōng
four o'clock	四点钟	sì diǎn zhōng
five o'clock	五点钟	wŭ diǎn zhōng
six o'clock	六点钟	liù diǎn zhōng
seven o'clock	七点钟	qī diǎn zhōng
eight o'clock	八点钟	bā diǎn zhōng
nine o'clock	九点钟	jiŭ diǎn zhōng
ten o'clock	十点钟	shí diǎn zhōng
eleven o'clock	十一点钟	shí yī diǎn zhōng
twelve o'clock	十二点钟	shí èr diǎn zhōng

分

Of course often you need to also be able to express the time down to the minute, for that you use

分

fēn

. So basically the construction would be like saying "four hour, twenty minutes". Here are a couple examples:

Hours & Minutes: 4:20
four	hour	twenty		minutes
四	点	二	十	分
sì	diǎn	èr	shí	fēn

Hours & Minutes: 11:59
eleven		hour	fifty-nine			minutes
十	一	点	五	十	九	分
shí	yī	diǎn	wŭ	shí	jiŭ	fēn

Notice when expressing a time that has minutes as well as hours, you don't use

点钟	diǎn zhōng

after the number of hours, just 点. You only say 点钟 when expresing time on the hour. Here is another example, note here that you use the 'zero' in between the two fours, as you would in English: "four oh four". In Chinese you are essentially saying "four hour oh four minute".

Hours & Minutes: 4:04
four	hour	zero	four	minutes
四	点	〇	四	分
sì	diǎn	líng	sì	fēn

In everyday speech the 分 is usually dropped:

Common Speech: 4:04
four	hour	zero	four
四	点	〇	四
sì	diǎn	líng	sì

While as we mentioned above you use 两 for two hours, if the number of minutes is two you use 二:

Hours & Minutes: 2:50
two	hours	fifty		minutes
两	点	五	十	分
liǎng	diǎn	wŭ	shí	fēn

Hours & Minutes: 5:02
five	hours	zero	two	minutes
五	点	〇	二	分
wŭ	diǎn	líng	èr	fēn

半

There are some other ways to express the time, too. In English we say "five thirty", but we also say "half past five". In Chinese half is

半

bàn

, and so you can say 5:30 either way:

5:30 "Five Thirty"
five	hour	thirty		minutes
五	点	三	十	分
wŭ	diǎn	sān	shí	fēn

5:30 "Half Past Five"
five	hour	half
五	点	半
wŭ	diǎn	bàn

刻

And as in English, there's also "quarter":

一刻

yī kè

. So as we say "five and a quarter" which is the same as "five fifteen", you can say:

5:15 "Five and a Quarter"
five	hour	one quarter
五	点	一	刻
wŭ	diǎn	yī	kè

5:15 "Five Fifteen"
five	hour	fifteen		minutes
五	点	十	五	分
wŭ	diǎn	shí	wŭ	fēn

You wouldn't normally say "two quarters", but you could say three quarters instead of "forty five":

三刻

sān kè

差

And if you want to get really fancy and say something like "quarter 'til", you use

差

chà

which literally means "to fall short of". The following three examples all represent the same time.

5:45 "Five Forty-five"
five	hour	3 quarters
五	点	三	刻
wŭ	diǎn	sān	kè

5:45 "Quarter to Six"
short	one quarter		six	hour
差	一	刻	六	点
chà	yī	kè	liù	diǎn

5:45 "Fifteen before Six"
less	fifteen		minutes	six	hour
差	十	五	分	六	点
chà	shí	wŭ	fēn	liù	diǎn

A final note about usage: in general you will usually only hear the time expressed simply as a number of hours and number of minutes: (hours)

点

diǎn

(minutes)

分

fēn

. The other forms are uncommon, and in some places you won't hear them at all. When saying the time it's best to be safe and just use the simple hours/minutes form.

秒

Very occasionally you may want to express the time down to the seconds:

秒

miǎo

. It's very straightforward to add seconds to the time, just add it on to the end:

Hours, Minutes & Seconds: 11:59:59
eleven		hours	fifty		nine	min.	fifty		nine	sec.
十	一	点	五	十	九	分	五	十	九	秒
shí	yī	diǎn	wŭ	shí	jiŭ	fēn	wŭ	shí	jiŭ	miǎo

午

One last note about telling the time, you will often need to specify whether the time is in the morning or evening. There isn't really a direct equivalent to AM / PM, times are often expressed relative to the word for midday:

午

wǔ

.

Times of the Day
early morning	6AM-9AM	早上	zǎo shàng
morning	9AM-12PM	上午	shàng wǔ
noon	12PM	中午	zhōng wǔ
afternoon	12PM-6PM	下午	xià wǔ
evening	6PM-12AM	晚上	wǎn shàng
midnight	12AM	半夜	bàn yè
late night	12-6AM	凌晨	líng chén

These expressions are used before the time to indicate the time of day. So for example, 9:00AM vs 9:00PM would look like this:

9:00AM
morning		nine	o'clock
上	午	九	点	钟
shàng	wǔ	jiŭ	diǎn	zhōng

9:00PM
evening		nine	o'clock
晚	上	九	点	钟
wǎn	shàng	jiŭ	diǎn	zhōng

Also note that the 24-hour clock is used frequently in China, so you could also say 9PM as 21:00, but typically you'll see it written and not frequently spoken this way:

21:00
twenty		one	o'clock
二	十	一	点	钟
èr	shí	yī	diǎn	zhōng

More later on how to express time frames like “before 4”, “after 6”, and “from 9 to 5”.

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