今何時? What time is it? Time of day in Japanese

Whether you are watching the news and want to know when it will rain, or just going about your everyday life it is important to know how to say the time of day in Japanese. Japanese like English has ways to tell you whether it is day or night. Here are some examples.

https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/

INDEX

Time of Day with a.m. / p.m.

There are two words to refer to the a.m. hours in Japanese, 午前ごぜん or 午前中ごぜんちゅう. It is more common to use 午前中 when just referring to the a.m. hours.

午前中はずっと雨あめだった
It was raining all morning

午前 when referring to a specific time such as 6:00 a.m.

午前６時ろくじに出発しゅっぱつする
I depart at 6:00 a.m.
For p.m there is one word, 午後ごご. You use it just like 午前 but for p.m. or the afternoon.

午後６時ろくじに出発しゅっぱつする
I depart at 6:00 p.m.

But you can not say 午後中 like you would 午前中. Instead you would just say 午後.

午後はずっと雨あめだった
It was raining all Afternoon

Morning Hours

朝あさ is the word for morning. If you want to be more specific you can say 明あけ方がた for dawn.

あまり大おおきな声こえを出ださないで。まだ朝なんだ。
Don’t speak so loud. It’s still morning.

明け方までにこの仕事しごとを終おわらせないと
I need to finish this work by dawn
On the other hand if you want to be vague you can also say 朝方あさがた. This world roughly translating to around morning.

朝方の方ほうが夜よるより勉強べんきょうしやすい
It is easier to study around the morning than at night

Finally, Japanese even has the word 今朝けさ to express this morning.

今朝は雨あめだった
It was raining this morning

Afternoon Hours

The most common way to refer to the afternoon is 昼ひる. This can mean afternoon or exactly noon.

昼も雨あめだ
It is also raining in the afternoon
If you want to be specific you could say 正午しょうご which only refers to noon but this would not be common in spoken language. You can also be less specific by using the following terms.

昼頃ひるごろ – around noon
昼前ひるまえ – before noon
昼過ひるすぎ – past noon

Nighttime

For the late hours 夕方ゆうがた is evening and 夜よる is night. The word 夕ゆう itself means evening but it’s not usually used by itself to refer to the evening. It is used with other words as a compound. For example

夕日ゆうひ – evening sun
夕暮ゆうぐれ – dusk
夕ゆうべ – last night, etc.

If you are interested in more Japanese vocabulary you can find more on my blog here.

Also, if you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.

References

Japan Meteorological Agency (Japanese)