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- "九時十九分です。"
"九時十九分です。"
Translation:It is 9:19.
38 Comments
I believe the reason why this is the case is due to a phonetic deletion of /y/from a stress shift. That is only a guess though.
Super interesting question that sent me down the rabbit hole.
Here are 2 links I found interesting :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent
Essentially, there will be Pitch Accents in Japanese, not so much a stress accent. From what I've noticed, by changing the pitch of certain words, you're also changing its meaning - not just the intention like with a stress accent in English.
Basically a blend of F and H sound for 分 - since there's no English equivalent to the F sound in Japanese, opten ふ (or フ) will be used to make the sound.
This is an English nuance, rather than a Japanese one. "O'clock" is only used when the time is only given in hours(It's four o'clock). When telling in hours and minutes, it is unnecessary to use the word o'clock (It's four fifteen). At least, I think that is your problem, I'm no expert.
Well, even in English I usally say o'clock only when talking in hours. Why put more words for nothing for the same meaning.
294
"O'clock" is only used in English when talking about whole hours (so not when minutes are included like this example).
Some numbers when used in time are pronounced "ふん" rather than "ぷん", but as far as I know there's no grammatical logic or pattern to it. Certain times became exceptions simply because they are easier to pronounce (try saying "Kyu pun" a few times fast, the switch to "Kyu hun" to see what I mean). Hope this helps!
How about we decide to never be this specific with the time and just say that it's 9:20?
9:19 is too much of a tongue twister.. xD
Hmm, kinda confusing how this sentence doesn't include "Ima" (今), this sentence does kinda say how it is 9:19 right now, Can somebody explain?
There's two probable reasons why the sentence does not start with "ima".
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In casual conversation, such as when a friend asks what time is it, it is more convenient to say "it is 7 o'clock" rather than "right now it is 7 o'clock". The fact that it is the time today is implied without having to say it explicitly.
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At this point, people relatively new to Japanese are presented with a lot of new kanji, so to make things simpler, the "ima" is not added.
Hope this helps!
Oh, I see, and that would probably be the case. So you could include "Ima" in a sentence when you are making an announcement to people and stuff like that.
Right. It's like how the pilot says "the time is now 7:46 pm" when you land. It's a little more formal and precise.
I wrote "It is nine nineteen" an Duolingo said it was wrong!!! I'm pretty sure that "It is nine nineteen" is close enough to "It is 9:19"
- 148
Pronunciations:
1 minute • ippun
2 minutes • ni fun
3 minutes • san pun
4 minutes • yon pun
5 minutes • go fun
6 minutes • roppun
7 minutes • nana fun
8 minutes • hachifun
9 minutes • kyuu fun
10 minutes • juppun
Fun: 2, 5, 7, 8, 9.
Pun: 1, 3, 4, 6, 10.
Note: 8 minutes can also be happun.
Any one in the mood of tounge twisters.... Then try to pronounce times in Japanese
Listening questions require the answer to be written exactly the same as the original question so the kanji is required.
And while arabic numerals are commonly used in Japan, this skill is meant to teach you the Japanese number system so not using them kind of defeats the purpose...
So two of the audio voices pronounces it so the biggest break comes between 十and 九 in the word for nineteen (九時十 - 九分-です。). Is this how you'd normally pronounce it? Seems a bit odd to me...
There isn't anything in the sentence that says "now"
九時十九分です could also refer to a future time "What time is the movie?" "It is (at) 9:19"
