Hover a line for its pinyin and translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Alex has left his phone at home and asks Yang Fan, a colleague, about the day's schedule.
Chinese builds a time from the largest unit to the smallest, and never the other way: 晚上八点半 is evening, then eight, then half. English does the reverse — “half past eight in the evening” — so every time expression has to be turned inside out as you build it. The same big-to-small rule governs dates and addresses, which is why a Chinese envelope starts with the province and ends with the person. The hours have two traps. 二 becomes 两 at two o'clock — 两点, never 二点 — and twelve is 十二点, where 二 returns because it is inside a larger number. And 差 works backwards from the hour: 差五分三点 is five to three. 就这些 is a useful closer: “that's the lot”. You will hear it at the end of an order, a list or a briefing.
How do I read these pronunciations? See the pronunciation guide.
1. Telling the time
点 is the hour and 分 the minute: 十点十分. 半 covers half past — 十点半 — and 差 handles the minutes before an hour, counted backwards: 差五分三点, five to three. Note 两点 for two o'clock: the measure-word rule from lesson 2 reaches the clock too.
2. Time comes before the verb
This is the word-order rule that will save you most often. In Chinese, when something happens is stated before what happens: 我们五点下班, literally “we five-o'clock finish-work”. English puts the time at the end — “we finish at five” — and moving it there in Chinese is ungrammatical. The time phrase sits after the subject and before the verb, and larger time words come before smaller ones: 下午三点.
3. 从……到…… — from one point to another
从 opens the span and 到 closes it: 从十一点到十二点. Both halves are usually said, though in a quick answer the 从 can drop — 十二点到一点 is perfectly natural. The pair is not limited to clock times; it works for dates, places and stages of a journey, and you will meet it again for spans of years.
4. 上午, 中午, 下午, 晚上
The part of the day goes in front of the clock time, never after it: 下午三点, 晚上八点半. Chinese has no am/pm, so this is how the ambiguity is settled, and in speech the day-part is often said even when the context already makes it obvious.
A. Fill in the Blank · 填空
Fill in the blank with a word from this lesson's vocabulary.
- 1.现在十点。half past
- 2.十一点到十二点。from
- 3.我们五点。finish work
- 4.三点有一个电话。afternoon
B. Multiple Choice · 选择
Choose the best answer.
- 1.How do you say “we finish at five”?
- 2.Which is correct?
- 3.How do you say two o'clock?
- 4.What does 差五分三点 mean?
C. Rearrange the Sentence · 排序
Rearrange the words into a correct sentence, adding the punctuation shown in parentheses.
- 1.Tap tiles below…
- 2.Tap tiles below…
- 3.Tap tiles below…
- 4.Tap tiles below…
D. True or False · 判断
Based on the dialogue, mark each sentence T (true) or F (false).
- 1.It is half past ten.
- 2.The meeting runs from ten to eleven.
- 3.There is a call in the afternoon.
- 4.They finish work at six.
E. Matching · 连线
Match each line on the left with the best response on the right.
F. Translation · 翻译
Translate items 1–2 into Chinese, and items 3–4 into English.
- 1.What time is it?
- 2.We finish at five.
- 3.从十一点到十二点。
- 4.下午三点有一个电话。
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Early is on time
Chinese working days start earlier than European ones and break harder in the middle. Arriving a few minutes before a 会议 is expected, and turning up exactly on the hour can read as cutting it fine. The middle of the day is genuinely protected: 午休, the midday rest, runs roughly from twelve to two, and offices, banks and small shops dim the lights while people eat and then nap at their desks. Scheduling anything across it is a beginner's mistake. In exchange the evening arrives early too — dinner at six is normal rather than rushed.