Japanese Learning: “Kakarimasu” a verb to say How long it does take (1); Expressions about time

Suppose you are working in a company. You need to go the company every day through Monday to Friday. You leave your home early in the morning, and get on a train. If it takes only ten minutes on the train, and then you can soon get to your working place from the station, you are lucky. But if it takes one hour and a half on the train, you would be exhausted even at the time when you get to your working place. So, it is very important for you as to how long it takes on your commute. How would you say about this in Japanese?

1. Watashi no Ie kara Kaisha made Densha de Yon juppun Kakarimasu.

Let me tell you about grammatical things about this sentence tomorrow. For today, learn the expressions about time period as a preparation to learn the sentence 1.

– one minute => Ippun

– two minutes => Ni fun

– three minutes => Sampun

– four minutes => Yompun

– five minutes => Go fun

– six minutes => Roppun

– seven minutes => Nana fun

– eight minutes => Happun

– nine minutes => Kyuu fun

– ten minutes => Juppun (Jippun)

– twenty minutes => Ni Juppun

– thirty minutes => San Juppun

– forty-four minutes => Yon Juu Yompun

– fifty-five minutes => Go Juu Go fun

– one hour => Ichi Jikan

– two hours => Ni Jikan

– three and a half hours => San Jikan Han

– four hours and thirty minutes => Yo Jikan San Juppun

– twelve hours => Juu Ni Jikan

<to be continued>

This post was written with reference to the exercise A6 on Section 11 of “Minna no Nihongo” published by “3A Corporation”