Tell time + Future vs. habitual actions 〜 ます (〜 masu) vs. Present time 〜ています (〜teimasu) + Particle を (wo)

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はちじにおしごとにいきます！

Hachi ji ni oshigoto ni ikimasu!

I go to work at 8 o'clock!

Telling time

We will now learn how to tell time in Japanese. We will also review the numbers.

In Japanese, 'time' is じかん (jikan).

You can now tell people that you do or don't have time!

じかんがあります！

Jikan ga arimasu!

or...

じかんはありません。。。

Jikan wa arimasen...

Let's start with hours: 'hour' is じ (ji).

*よじ and くじ are irregular. Thus, we don't say よんじ or きゅうじ.

We don't tell time like in French in Japanese, so you will never hear 'thirteen o'clock, twenty o'clock...' We will tell the difference between morning and afternoon with these two words: ごぜん (gozen) (a.m) and ごご (gogo) (p.m). We will place them before the time.

It is 9 a.m.

ごぜんくじです。

Gozen kuji desu.

It is now 8 p.m.

いまはごごはちじです。

Ima wa gogo hachi ji desu.

'Minute' is ふん (fun) in Japanese.

Some numbers will be irregular, so be careful.

You might have noticed that there are two ways of saying 'four' (よん or し) and 'seven' (しち and なな). There are no way to really know which one to use. I would personally just remember which one is used for which words.

To say 'half', as in '10:30 a.m', you can say ごぜんじゅうじはん (gozen juu ji han). はん (han) is 'half'. 

There is no way to say 'quarter' really, so we will say the number 15 + minutes.

With that in mind, let's learn the verb 'to meet' in order to practice telling time.

'To meet' is あいます（あう）(aimasu) (au) and this verb requires the use of the particle に at all times.

I meet Reina at 5:30 p.m.

ごごごじはんにれいなにあいます。

Gogo go ji han ni Reina ni aimasu.

Yes, I will meet with Watanabe-san at 6 o'clock here.

はい、ろくじにここにわたなべさんにあいます。

Hai, roku ji ni koko ni Watanabe-san ni aimasu.

To ask what time it is, simply say なんじですか？(Nan ji desu ka?)

To ask at what time, like 'at what time are you meeting up with Reina?' you can use the question word いつ (itsu), which means 'when'.

When do you meet Reina?

いつれいなにあいますか？

Itsu Reina ni aimasu ka?

I meet her at 4 o'clock.

よじにあいます。

Yo ji ni aimasu.

Since we can now tell time, we should also learn the days of the week and the months. We should also be able to say what day it is and what month it is.

The days of the week in Japanese all have a meaning and the week typically start on Monday and not Sunday.

げつようび (Getsuyoubi) - Monday (day of the moon)

かようび (kayoubi) - Tuesday (day of the fire)

すいようび (suiyoubi) - Wednesday (day of the water)

もくようび (mokuyoubi) - Thursday (day of the tree)

きんようび (kin'youbi) - Friday (day of the gold)

どようび (doyoubi) - Saturday (day of the earth)

にちようび (nichiyoubi) - Sunday (day of the sun)

The months are relatively easy. 

いちがつ (ichigatsu) - January

にがつ (nigatsu) - February

さんがつ (sangatsu) - March

しがつ (shigatsu) - April

ごがつ (gogatsu) - May

ろくがつ (rokugatsu) - June

しちがつ (shichigatsu) - July

はちがつ (hachigatsu) - August

くがつ (kugatsu) - September

じゅうがつ (juugatsu) - October

じゅういちがつ (juuichigatsu) - November

じゅうにがつ (juunigatsu) - December

Yes, you read that right. Months use the numbers + the word for months... how original! That makes it easy to learn, but maybe a bit hard since you need to know that March is the third month, August the 8th month, etc..

Now, I won't really teach you how to say the 9th day of the month, because this is a bit complicated and I think with this lesson, you will have enough for a while.

One more thing...

きょう (kyou) - today

あした (ashita) - tomorrow

あさって (asatte) - the day after tomorrow

きのう (kinou) - yesterday

おととい (ototoi) - the day before yesterday

あさ (asa) - morning

けさ (kesa) - this morning

ひる (hiru) - afternoon

こんばん (konban) - this evening

よる (yoru) - night

こんや (kon'ya) - this night

ゆうべ (yuube) - last night

こんしゅう (konshuu) - this week

せんしゅう (senshuu) - last week

らいしゅう (raishuu) - next week

しゅうまつ (shuumatsu) - weekend

こんげつ (kongetsu) - this month

せんがつ (sengatsu) - last month

らいがつ (raigatsu) - next month

ことし (kotoshi) - this year

きょねん (kyonen) - last year

らいねん (rainen) - next year

さき (saki) - previous

つぎ (tsugi) - next

In October of next year, I am going to Japan.

らいねんのじゅうがつににほんにいきます。

Rainen no juugatsu ni nihon ni ikimasu.

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Future, habitual actions and present tense

A lot of people, when they first learn Japanese, they get a bit confused with the ending 〜ます (〜masu) when it comes to verbs. A lot make the mistake of thinking that this verb ending represents the present tense, but it doesn't. 

There are two meanings to this verb ending: it can represent the future or a habitual action.

Future use

Take the examples we did with the verb 'to meet' あいます: in all examples, we were talking in the future tense. This tells you it is in the future because of the time markers. This verb cannot really be in the present tense anyway. 

It is the same for です (desu), あります (arimasu) and います (imasu). These are state verbs, thus, they are automatically in the present tense and cannot be in the future tense.

If you want to say 'I will be in Japan in 2 months', you will need to say 'I will be going to Japan in two months.' We cannot use the verb です in this situation.

I'm going to Japan.

にほんにいきます。

Nihon ni ikimasu.

I will meet Reina.

れいなにあいます。

Reina ni aimasu.

I will eat an apple.

りんごをたべます。

Ringo o tabemasu.

Habitual action use

The ending 〜ます can also represent a habitual action.

I read the newspaper every morning.

まいあさ、しんぶんをよみます。

Maiasa, shinbun o yomimasu.

In this case, it tells us that you do a repeated action. You are used to read the newspaper every morning.

*まいあさ is 'every morning', しんぶん is 'newspaper' and よみます is 'to read'.

I go to work everyday.

まいにち、おしごとにいきます。

Mainichi, oshigoto ni ikimasu.

いきます（いく）is 'to go'.

Like in English, to say that you are doing something right now will be another tense.

Present tense

If you want to use the present, as in 'I am doing something right now', we will have 

to use the 〜て (〜te) form of verbs, 〜ています (〜te-imasu).

I am reading a book right now.

いま、ほんをよんでいます。

Ima, hon o yondeimasu.

よみます will become よんでいます in this form. You will notice that the 〜て form will change a little bit depending on the verb endings at the infinitive. Thus, since よむ (yomu) is a verb ending in 'mu' at the infinitive, it will be よんでいます and not よています.

We will see all verb endings in due time.

I am eating an apple.

りんごをたべています。

Ringo o tabeteimasu.

Thus, 〜ます form of verbs represents either the future or a habitual action.

For the present tense, we use the 〜て form of verbs.

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Particle を

We saw a little bit of this particle. Now, it is time to explain it.

The particle を is an object marker. It will be used mostly with action verbs such as 'to read', 'to eat', 'to take (something)', 'to drink', 'to look', 'to see', etc.

We write it を, but we pronounce it 'o' and not 'wo'.

I read the newspaper.

しんぶんをよみます。

Shinbun o yomimasu.

I eat an apple.

りんごをたべます。

Ringo o tabemasu.

I take a picture.

しゃしんをとります。

Shashin o torimasu.

I drink tea.

おちゃをのみます。

Ocha o nomimasu.

Do not think of this particle as being 'a' or 'an' in English! Some of my students made this mistake, because in some verb cases, you would use 'a' or 'an' in English, but not 'o' in Japanese. There is no articles in Japanese, as such the particle 'o' shouldn't replace 'a' or 'an' in English. 

As we saw in the lesson about existential verbs, when we use action verbs that require the use of the object particle in the negative, then we will use the particle は (wa) instead of を (o).

The negative form of the verb ending 〜ます is 〜ません.

I do not read newspapers.

しんぶんはよみません。

Shinbun wa yomimasen.

I do not eat apples.

りんごはたべません。

Ringo wa tabemasen.

I do not take pictures.

しゃしんはとりません。

Shashin wa torimasen.

I do not drink tea.

おちゃはのみません。

Ocha wa nomimasen.

Again, this is a matter of putting an emphasis on the negative. Technically speaking, we can use the particle を with the negative, but we will often need something else.

Look at these examples:

I do not drink tea everyday.

まいあさ、おちゃはのみません。

Maiasa, ocha wa nomimasen.

まいあさは、おちゃをのみません。

Maiasa wa, ocha o nomimasen.

They both mean the same thing, but the emphasis will change.

In the first example, we put the emphasis on 'ocha'. In the second example, we put the emphasis on 'maiasa'. Which means that in the first example, we do not drink tea every morning, but we could be drinking something else in the morning.

In the second example, we could be drinking tea, but not every morning, which means we do not have the habit of drinking something every morning.

Keep in mind that different verbs will require different particles. But don't panic! It isn't witchcraft to know which particle goes with which verb.

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You have completed lesson 6!

レッシュン6ができました！