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Months and Dates

After learning numbers, we can transition into learning dates and times. All of the months consist of the number of the month, followed by 月 (がつ).

Most days are also written in the standard form of the day number followed by 日 (にち). However, there are exceptions to this for days 1-10, the 14th, the 20th, and the 24th.

The year is also simple, as it consists of saying the year number and adding 年 (ねん). There are two ways to denote the year however. The first is the aforementioned method of just saying the actual number. The other version is based off of when emperors gain the throne. Since 1989, we’ve been in the Heisei (平成) era. The previous era from 1926-1989 was the Showa (昭和) era. You can find the current平成year by subtracting 1988 from the current year.

Time of Day

For times, the hour is the number followed by 時 (じ), and the minutes are the number followed by 分 (ぷん or ふん, depending on the preceding number) From 1-10, there is a pattern of the usage of ぷん andふん. This pattern repeats for the higher digit numbers as well.

For hours

For minutes