Doubt about telling time in mandarin
I was studying sentences such as "10 minutes till 2 o'clock " but the site i'm using to study chinese only has sentences without time periods (example : 差二十分三點 . )such as p.m or a.m , so my doubt is : is the following sentence correct? : 差四十分下午十點 .

Question

Doubt about telling time in mandarin
I was studying sentences such as "10 minutes till 2 o'clock " but the site i'm using to study chinese only has sentences without time periods  (example : 差 二 十 分 三 點 . )such as p.m or a.m ,  so my doubt is : is the following sentence correct? :  差 四十 分 下午 十點 .

Answer

2：00 两点 or 两点钟
2：10  两点十分  两点过十分
2：15两点一刻  两点十五分
2：30 两点半 两点三十分
2：45 两点四十五分 差一刻到三点
2：55 两点五十五分 差五分钟到三点
So it's all ok to say xx点xx分
If xx minutes to xx o'clock,  差xx分到xx点, 差xx分钟到xx点半(within 15 minutes)
Xx minutes passed xx o'clock, xx点过 xx分， xx点半过xx分

Answer

no one says "forty minutes to ten"

Answer

I would say 晚上九点二十or 差十分九点半。
By the way, 10 pm is definitely not 下午， it should be 晚上。

I think it really defers from person to person, from place t place. This is what I prefer:
0:00 - 2:00 半夜 ban4 ye4
3:00 - 5:00 凌晨 ling2 chen2
6:00 - 9:00 早上 zao3 shang
10:00 - 11:00 上午 shang4 wu3
12:00 - 13:00 中午 zhong1 wu3
14:00 - 17:00 下午 xia4 wu3
18:00 - 23:00 晚上 wan3 shang

Answers · 3

Still haven’t found your answers?

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn a language from the comfort of your own home. Browse our selection of experienced language tutors and enroll in your first lesson now!