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There is one interesting thing about the names of the days in Japanese. All the names when written in kanji are associated with the elements of nature. Getsuyoubi has the kanji of moon, Kayoubi has the kanji of Fire, Suiyoubi has the kanji of water, mokuyoubi has the kanji of wood, Kinyoubi has the kanji of gold, doyoubi has the kanji of soil and Nichiyoubi has the kanji of sun. Here are some useful sentences containing the days of the week which will help you in your communication. Here are some useful phrases containing the days of the week:
Telling Time
Japanese people are very strict about time. They do not like people who reach late for any occasion. They are very punctual about every single activity. Time in Japanese is expressed by using “ji” counter which means “o’clock” or “hours”. The table below enlists the hours from 1 to 12.
When you want to express a.m. and p.m. then use “gozen” (go-zen) and “gogo” (go-go) respectively. Always write gogo or gozen before the time in a sentence. This is a rule for using these words. See the following examples:
A word “kan” is also used in relation with time. “Kan” is used to show the time duration. “Kan” always comes after the time phrase. E.g.: Uchi kara gakkou made nanjikan gurai khakari masu ka. (How much time do you approximately need to go from home to school?) Ichijikan gurai kakarimasu. (I require approximately one hour.) The word “gurai” (gu-ra-i) means approximately. Another word similar to “gurai” is “goro” (go-ro) which also means approximately. The difference between these two words is that “gurai” is used when we are talking about time duration. Whereas, “goro” is used when we are talking about the time. E.g.
Japanese doesn't have a simple phrase for "quarter-hour" or "15 minutes". Therefore it makes use of the words " mae (ma-e) and sugi (su-gi). “Mae” means before and “Sugi” means after. These two words are used to tell the time in minutes. An important thing to remember is that “sugi” is used to tell minutes between 1to 44 minutes whereas; “mae” is used for minutes between 46 and 59. These two words are always used after the time. E.g.:
To ask "What time is it now?" in Japanese, use the sentence “Ima nan-ji desu ka (i-ma nan-ji de-su ka)”. “Nan ji” means what time. Japanese schedules usually follow the 24-hour system. For example, 1-ji (ee-chee-jee) means 1 a.m., and 13-ji Qooo-sahn-jee) means 1 p.m. All you need to do is say the number and add -ji to the end. This system eliminates a.m./p.m. ambiguity, so you don't need to say gozen or gogo. The particle “ni” is a very important part while talking about time. The “ni” particle is used to specify the exact time. To ask questions related to exact time, always use particle “ni” in the question and also while answering the question particle ni has to be a part of the sentence. Make sure you place the particle after the time phrase. “Kara” (ka-ra) which means from and “made” (ma-de) which means till or until is also used while talking about time. These two words always come after the time in the sentence. Following are the examples which make use of “kara” and “made” :
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