What time is the next train?

To start, we'll review our numbers:

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十、十一、十二
いち、に、さん、、ご、ろく、しち、はち、きゅう、じゅう、じゅういち、じゅうに
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

十二、十一、十、九、八、七、六、五、四、三、二、一
じゅうに、じゅういち、じゅう、きゅう、はち、なな、ろく、ご、よん、さん、に、いち
12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

一つ、二つ、三つ、四つ、五つ、六つ、七つ、八つ、九つ
ひとつ、ふたつ、みっつ、よっつ、いつつ、むっつ、ななつ、やっつ、ここのつ
1 (thing), 2 (things), 3 (things), 4 (things), 5 (things), 6 (things), 7 (things), 8 (things), 9 (things)


OK. Lesson time...


If you've been following our travel lessons diligently, you can now say excuse me to get someone's attention and ask them which train you're supposed to board.

But are you prepared for the following situation?

Since you love to get off the beaten path, you now find yourself in the mysterious Iya Valley in the heart of Shikoku. (I've never been, but I really want to go. You can distract yourself from studying by looking at pages like this oneor this one.)

Like a fool, you've let your phone die, so you have no idea what time the next bus (or train) is coming.

You're standing around waiting for what feels like forever before finally working up the courage to ask a Japanese person sitting nearby, "When is the next bus?"

How, my friend, would we say that in Japanese?

Pretend to think about the answer while you scroll down.

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Answer:


次のバスはいつですか?
つぎ の バス は いつ です か?
When is the next bus?
Literally: “next + の + bus + は + when + です + か?”


Word-by-word, that's:

次(つぎ // next
の([possessive particle]
バス(bus
は([topic-marking particle]
いつ(when
です([copula (i.e. ~ "to be")]
か([question-ending particle]

If you want to stress about all of those particles, your life is not going to be very fun.

These past lessons may help:
- [NDL #321] - Basics: は, No は, & ですか
- [NDL #398] - Basics: Intro to の
- [NDL #405] - Basics: Intro to の, Part II


What if you want to know when the next train is, not the next bus?

This one is really complicated: "bus" → "train."

So:


次の電車はいつですか?
つぎ の でんしゃ は いつ です か?
When is the next train?
Literally: “next + の + train + は + when + です + か?”


いつ means "when," so you'll certainly want to memorize it.

We might as well learn how to say "what time," too:

何時(なんじ // what time


In isolation, the kanji 何 is pronounced なに. This means "what."

For example, if you're sitting at a restaurant with your Japanese friend, and you want to know what they're going to order, you can ask:


何食べる?
なに たべる?
What are you gonna eat?
Literally: “what + eat?”


Japanese can be pretty simple sometimes, yeah?

What's not so simple is that 何 often attaches to other kanji, parts of speech, etc., causing it to be pronounced as なん instead of なに. You'll see this 482,000 times throughout your studies, so I wouldn't worry about determining "rules" for this. You'll just learn it naturally, little by little.

Anyway, we have 何, "what," combine with 時, "time," to give us "what time." (Similar to なに for 何, the character 時 is pronounced とき in isolation. When attached to other words, it will often be pronounced じ.)

So, knowing that 何時 (なんじ) means "what time," how do you think we would say "What time is the next bus?"

First, here's the sentence we saw earlier:


次のバスはいつですか?
つぎ の バス は いつ です か?
When is the next bus?
Literally: “next + の + bus + は + when + です + か?”


And here is a whopping hint:


次のバスは___ですか?
つぎ の バス は ___ です か?
___ is the next bus?
Literally: “next + の + bus + は + ___ + です + か?”


Put on your thinking pants, yo (they give a higher thinking stat bonus than thinking caps).

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Answer:


次のバスは何時ですか?
つぎ の バス は なんじ です か?
What time is the next bus?
Literally: “next + の + train + は + what time + です + か?”


Wow. And now for "train:"


次の電車は何時ですか?
つぎ の でんしゃ は なんじ です か?
What time is the next train?
Literally: “next + の + train + は + what time + です + か?”


Being able to ask the above questions is cool and all, but that's not very useful if you don't understand the answer.

Here are two sample answers:


一時三分です。
いちじ さんぷん です。
It’s at 1:03.
Literally: “one o’clock + three minutes + です.”


十分後です。
じゅっぷん ご です。
It’s in 10 minutes.
Literally: “ten minutes + -later / -after + です.”


That's right. Dreaded numbers have come back to haunt us again. Curse them!

A nightmarish preview of things to come:

一時(いちじ // one o'clock
二時(にじ // two o'clock
三時(さんじ // three o'clock
四時(よじ // four o'clock
五時(ごじ // five o'clock
六時(ろくじ // six o'clock
七時(しちじ // seven o'clock
八時(はちじ // eight o'clock
九時(くじ // nine o'clock
十時(じゅうじ // ten o'clock
十一時(じゅういちじ // eleven o'clock
十二時(じゅうにじ // twelve o'clock

一分(いっぷん // one minute
二分(にふん // two minutes
三分(さんぷん // three minutes
四分(よんぷん // four minutes
五分(ごふん // five minutes
六分(ろっぷん // six minutes
七分(ななふん // seven minutes
八分(はっぷん // eight minutes
九分(きゅうふん // nine minutes
十分(じゅっぷん // ten minutes

十一分(じゅういっぷん // eleven minutes
十二分(じゅうにふん // twelve minutes
十三分(じゅうさんぷん // thirteen minutes
十四分(じゅうよんぷん // fourteen minutes
十五分(じゅうごふん // fifteen minutes

二十分(にじゅっぷん // twenty minutes
三十分(さんじゅっぷん // thirty minutes
四十分(よんじゅっぷん // forty minutes
五十分(ごじゅっぷん // fifty minutes

五十六分(ごじゅうろっぷん // fifty-six minutes
五十七分(ごじゅうななふん // fifty-seven minutes
五十八分(ごじゅうはっぷん // fifty-eight minutes
五十九分(ごじゅうきゅうふん // fifty-nine minutes

一時半(いちじはん // half past one
二時半(にじはん // half past two
三時半(さんじはん // half past three


I know what you're thinking:

Or maybe you're just thinking that's an awful lot of numbers to be memorizing.

That's why I like to look at numbers in short bursts. Doing them all at once makes me depressed.

In any case, we'll look a bit more at train and bus times in the next travel lesson.

Yeah, sorry...

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