Beginning Japanese for Professionals: Book 2

23 ~ mai , etc. Some classifiers are used for both naming and counting. ~ kai for floors is one such classifier. The classifier ~ fun is for both naming and counting minutes. So, jup-pun can either mean ten minutes after the hour, (the point in time--naming), or ten minutes (the length of time --counting). For counting, ~ funkan is sometimes used to avoid confusion. In telling clock time, the hour is followed by minutes ( ku-ji jup-pun .) Note the sound change of /f/ to /p/ in combinations with 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 and in the question word nan-pun . Minutes いっぷん 一分 1 minute にふん 二分 2 minutes さんぷん 三分 3 minutes よんぷん 四分 4 minutes ごふん 五分 5 minutes ろっぷん 六分 6 minutes ななふん 七分 7 minutes はっぷん／はちふん 八分 8 minutes きゅうふん 九分 9 minutes じゅっぷん／じっぷん 十分 10 minutes なんぷん 何分 how many minutes? 6-1-3 Time Particle に A time expression with particle に indicates the time when something happens or happened. The particles は and も can be added to it. 日曜日 にちようび に帰 かえ ります。 Nichiyoubi ni kaerimasu . I’ll return on Sunday. 八時 は ち じ には出 で ましょう。 Hachi-ji ni wa demashou . Let’s leave at 8:00 (at latest). 十時 じゅうじ にも授業 じゅぎょう があります。 Juu-ji ni mo jugyou ga arimasu. I have a class at ten, too. Two types of time expressions usually do not take the particle ni . One type includes relative time expressions such as kyou 、 ashita 、 ima ． These expressions refer to different points in time depending on the time frame in which they are used. The other type includes vague time expressions such as asa 、 hiru 、 ban. These expressions refer to a period of time without a specific starting or ending point. Compare the following examples with those above.