Language/Mandarin-chinese/Grammar/Time

In Chinese, the punctual time (and not the duration) is built with 点 diǎn:

• 一点 yì diǎn an hour.
• 两点 liǎng diǎn two hours.
• 三点 sān diǎn three o'clock.
• 十一点 shí yī diǎn eleven o'clock.
• 十二点 shí èr diǎn twelve hours.

Two remarks:

1. for the number "two", when it comes to the time, it is necessary to use 两 liǎng and not 二 èr and that only for the number 2, not for the numbers composed with 2 like 12, 22, etc. .
2. When a syllable that begins with a vowel (like èr) is preceded by another syllable, it must be separated by an apostrophe: shí'èr 12; tiān'ānmén Tian'anmen Square, etc.

If we want to specify that it is the hour stack, we can add 钟 zhōng after 点 diǎn, but it is not mandatory:

• 七 点钟 qī diǎn zhōng 7 o'clock

The minutes are built with 分 fēn:

• 八点 五分 bā diǎn wǔ fēn 8h05

In Chinese, we can say 13:00 十三 点, 14:00 十四点. But it is better to say 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 9 o'clock in the morning, etc. The word "morning" 上午 shàngwǔ or "afternoon" 下午 xiàwǔ is placed before the time:

• 上午 九点 二 十五分 9:25 am
• 下午 六 点钟 6 o'clock pm

The question for asking the time is 现在 几点 了? Xiànzài jǐ diǎn le?

We can remove the 了 to give less force in the sense of "now".

It is quite possible to answer using 现在:

• 现在 三点 了 It's three o'clock.