Page 304 - Basic Japanese

If you want to add ‘a.m.’ and ‘p.m.,’ you put the words

gozen ‘before-noon’ and gogo ‘after-noon’ in front of the time

expression. So ‘from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.’ is gozen ku-ji kara gogo
ku-ji made.

To say ‘half-past ten’ or the like, you just add -han ‘and a
half’ at the end of the time expression: gogo roku-ji han ‘half

past six in the evening.’

Notice the difference between san-ji ‘(the third hour =) 3
o’clock’ and san-jikan ‘3 hours.’ To ask ‘what time (= which

hour, what o’clock)’ you say nan-ji. To ask ‘how much time,
how long (=how many hours)’ you say nan-jikan.

“Ima nan-ji desu ka.” “San-ji yonjū go-fun desu.”

“What time is it now?” “It’s 3:45.”

6.17. -gurai / -goro

The particle gurai means ‘approximate quantity, about so

much.’ Gurai is often written (and sometimes pronounced)

kurai. There is a related noun kurai that means ‘position,
rank.’ Notice also the idioms kono-kurai (or kono-gurai) and

kore-kurai (= kore gurai) ‘this much, to this extent.’