HOW TO TELL THE TIME IN VIETNAMESE

One of the most important part in our daily life is time. To know the time is to control your life. In this article, Tiếng Việt online will introduce to you How to tell the time in Vietnamese.

Hour system:

Just like other languages, Vietnamese has words for time: “giờ” (hour), “phút” (minute), “giây” (second)

There are two systems in Vietnam: 12-hour system and 24-hour system.

If you use 12-hour system, it’s necessary to add sáng (a.m) and chiều (p.m) after saying the hour. If you use 24-hour system, it’ll be 13, 14,… from noon.

The most basic way to tell the time is to follow this formula: number + “giờ” + number + “phút”

Example: 8:45 => 8 giờ 45 phút

17:27 => 17 giờ 27 phút

Asking the time:

These are a few examples of the question when you want want to know the time:

Bây giờ là mấy giờ ? (What time is it?)

Bạn có thể xem giúp tôi mấy giờ rồi không? (Can you tell me what time it is?)

Bạn có biết mấy giờ rồi không? (Do you know what time it is?)

Mấy giờ rồi nhỉ? (What time is it?)

Telling the time:

Giờ hơn (the minute < 30):

• Comparatively:

Formula: Number + “giờ” + “hơn”/”Hơn” + number + “giờ”

We use this way when it’s not necessary to tell the exact time or we don’t know exactly either.

Example: 12 giờ hơn rồi đấy. (It’s a little bit over 12)

Chắc hơn 7 giờ thôi. (It’s probably past 7)

• Exactly:

We use the basic formula: number + “giờ” + number + “phút”

Giờ kém (the minute > 30):

• Comparatively:

Formula: Number + “giờ” + “kém”

The same as “giờ hơn”, this way is used when it doesn’t have to tell the exact time.

Example: 9 giờ kém rồi bạn. (It’s  st almost 6)

• Exactly:

Formula: (number+1) + “giờ” + “kém” + (60-number) + “phút”

VD: 18:45 => 19 giờ kém 15 phút

7:56 =>  giờ kém 4 phút

Some special cases:

• Giờ đúng:

If it’s exactly o’clock we will use “giờ đúng”.

VD: 12:00 => 12 giờ đúng

• Giờ rưỡi:

When it’s half pas, we can say “rưỡi” or “30 phút”.

VD: 6:30 => 6 rưỡi or 6 giờ 30 phút

Above is how to tell the time in Vietnamese. We hope that through this article, you can apply these knowledge in real life.

This article is posted in Basic Vietnamese category.

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