Intro
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Hi everybody! Yinru here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Chinese questions. |
The Question |
The question for this lesson is: Do Chinese use AM and PM when talking about time? |
Explanation |
The answer is no. Even though there are people in China, mostly well-educated people, who would know what AM and PM mean, most Chinese don’t use AM and PM. |
In formal situations, for example on a train schedule, you’ll often see the 24-hour format for time, such as 07:30, 21:20. |
In spoken language, people often use 上午 shàngwǔ, 下午 xiàwǔ, 早上 zǎoshang, and 晚上 wǎnshang to be specific. 上午 means “morning;” 下午 is “afternoon;” 早上 is “early morning;” and finally, 晚上 is “night.” |
So, to say 10 AM, in spoken language we’d usually say 上午十点 shàngwǔ shí diǎn. To say 3 PM, we use 下午三点 xiàwǔ sān diǎn. Generally speaking, if it’s before 9 AM, you can say 早上七点 zǎoshang qī diǎn, because it’s still early in the morning. If it’s after 6 PM, you can say 晚上七点 wǎnshang qī diǎn, because it’s late evening. If the time is between 12pm-1pm, we use 中午 zhōngwǔ, which means “noon.” |
Let’s see how we say the following times: |
6:20 am --- 早上六点二十 zǎoshang liù diǎn èrshí. |
9:30 am --- 上午九点三十 shàngwǔ jiǔdiǎn sānshí, or 上午九点半 shàngwǔ jiǔ diǎn bàn. 半 bàn here means “half.” |
12 pm --- 中午十二点 zhōngwǔ shíèr diǎn. |
1:30 pm --- 下午一点三十 xiàwǔ yī diǎn sānshí or 下午一点半 xiàwǔ yī diǎn bàn. |
10:25 pm --- 晚上十点二十五 wǎnshang shí diǎn èrshíwǔ. |
And do you remember how to ask about time? You can say: |
现在几点了?(Xiànzài jǐ diǎn le? “What time is it now?”) |
明天几点开会?(Míngtiān jǐdiǎn kāihuì? “What time is the meeting tomorrow?”) |
我们后天什么时候见面?(Wǒmen hòutiān shénme shíhòu jiànmiàn ? “When are we going to meet the day after tomorrow?”) |
Outro
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“Now it’s time for us to say good bye,” or in Chinese 现在到了我们说再见的时间了。(Xiànzài dàole wǒmen shuō zàijiàn de shíjiān le.) |
If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below! |
See you next time! |
下次见! Xiàcì jiàn! |
Comments
HideWhat Chinese learning question do you have?
你好 robert groulx,
谢谢 for posting and studying with us. If you have any questions, please let us know.😄
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the vocabulary list
. 上午 means “morning;” 下午 is “afternoon;” 早上 is “early morning;” and finally, 晚上 is “night.”
robert
Hello, Bashir Ahmed Zeeshan,
6:20 am = 早上六点二十分(zǎoshang liù diǎn èr shí fēn)
Sometimes, we omit 分 , just say, 早上六点二十, without "fēn".
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
For time with hours and minute, Dont we use "fen" for minute like
6:20 am --- 早上六点二十 zǎoshang liù diǎn èrshí fen