Lesson 025 Time

Cam: Perfect Chinese your way, in only five minutes a day. Welcome to Chinese Studio, I’m Cam. 早上好, Yajie.
Yajie: 早上好(zǎoshang hǎo), Cam. Last week we learned holiday greetings and also how to wish somebody a happy birthday. Let’s have a quick review, ok?
Cam: Ok. Happy Birthday is祝你生日快乐(zhù nǐ shēng rì kuài lè).
Yajie: And how do you say “I wish you good health!” in Chinese?
Cam: Well, it’s祝你身体健康！(zhù nǐ shēntǐ jiànkāng).
Yajie: And what about “All the best”?
Cam: 祝你万事如意! (zhù nǐ wàn shì rúyì!)
Yajie: Well, this week we’ll learn words about time. Let’s check our key words of the day!

Key words of the day:
现在几点？六点半。All in today’s Chinese Studio.

Yajie: 现在几点？What time is it now?
Cam: 现在几点？(xianzai ji dian?)
Yajie: 现在 means now.
Cam: 现在(xianzai)
Yajie: 几 is a question word meaning how many, or what? 几, j-i, the third tone.
Cam: 几 (ji)
Yajie: 几点 together means what time?
Cam: 几点 (ji dian)
Yajie: 现在几点？(xianzai ji dian?)
Cam: 现在几点？(xianzai ji dian?)

Conversations

Yajie: From the conversations you can see that there is “请问” in the question. As we said before 请问 shows the politeness in asking a question.  It means, “May I ask…”
Cam: 请问 (qing wen).
Yajie: 请问现在几点？(qing wen xianzai ji dian?)
Cam: 请问现在几点？(qing wen xianzai ji dian?
Yajie: 快八点了。
Cam: What does that mean?
Yajie: It means nearly eight o’clock. Here快 le means nearly. 快, k-u-a-i, the fourth tone.
Cam: 快 (kuai).
Yajie: 快八点了(kuai ba dian le).
Cam: 快八点了(kuai ba dian le).
Conversations:

****************Key words Reminder
现在几点？ 六点半。All in today’s Chinese Studio.
*****************

Yajie: Well, there is another way of asking the time. It’s 您知道现在几点了吗？It means “Do you know what time it is now?”
Cam: 您知道现在几点了吗？(nin zhi dao xianzai ji dian le me)
Yajie: 知道means know. 知, zhi, the first tone, and 道, dao, the fourth tone. Together it’s 知道 (zhidao).
Cam: 知道 (zhidao). 您 is the polite form of 你 (ni), right?
Yajie: Right. And 吗 is a question mark.
Cam: 吗
Yajie: 您知道现在几点了吗？
Cam: 您知道现在几点了吗？ (nin zhidao xianzai ji dian le ma)
Yajie: Good.
Cam: Yajie, how do you say half past eight in Chinese?
Yajie:. First, do you still remember how to say 30 in Chinese?
Cam: Yes, it’s san shi.
Yajie: So, 8:30 is ba dian san shi fen.
Cam: ba dian san shi fen.
Yajie: Exactly. But you could also say, Ba Dian Ban. Ban means half. So 8:30 is half way to 9.
Cam: Ba Dian Ban. How do I get more exact time, such as: 8:17
Yajie: Again, Cam, how do you say 17 in Chinese?
Cam: Shi qi.
Yajie: Good, so 8:17 is ba dian shi qi fen. Here I want to tell you that “fen” means minute in Chinese. How do you say 10:15?
Cam: it’s shi dian shi wu fen.
Yajie: Right, but you can also say Shi dian yi ke. Yi ke means a quarter , but it can only be used in when referring to time.