“You may delay, but time will not.” – Benjamin Franklin
There are a lot of minutes out there to learn, though usually anything above 60 minutes is unnecessary (because that’s when you start using hours). I’m not going to list out all 60 minutes, but you do want to be able to say all of them. Luckily the first ten minutes set the table in terms of patterns, though those patterns can take some time to learn (counters, why do you have to be so confusing!?).
a １分（いっぷん）
a ２分（にふん）
a ３分（さんぷん）
a ４分（よんふん）
a ５分（ごふん）
a ６分（ろっぷん）
a ７分（ななふん）
a ８分（はっぷん）
a ９分（きゅうふん）
a １０分（じゅっぷん）
a １１分（じゅういっぷん）
As you can see, with 11 minutes the pattern just starts over again, taking 10 (じゅう) plus one minute (いっぷん). Here’s some random minutes between 11 and 60 to show you how this continues to work. One little tidbit to know about is ３分. When you want it to mean “three minutes” it is read as さんぷん. When you want it to mean “three parts” it’s さんぶん. I’m sorry.
a １７分（じゅうななふん）
a ２６分（にじゅうろっぷん）
a ３５分（さんじゅうごふん）
a ４４分（よんじゅうよっぷん）
a ５８分（ごじゅうはっぷん）
a ６０分（ろくじゅっぷん）
See how it just keeps following the pattern time and time again all the way up until 60? Try to count from １１分 to ２０分 to see what I’m talking about. Those first 10 numbers are by far the most important, so if you know them you’ll be able to do anything above that as well.
A Period Of Minutes
Like you’ve probably guessed, 間 is going to be used here to indicate a period of minutes. “For 3 minutes,” “for 12 minutes,” “for 60 minutes” all fall under this category.
a １０分間（じゅっぷんかん）
For ten minutes
a ３０分間（さんじゅっぷんかん）
For thirty minutes
a ３分間（さんぶんかん）
For three minutes
You can use patterns like these to talk about how many minutes you spend doing something. Just some examples:
a 私は３０分間待ちました。
I waited for 30 minutes.
a ５分間歩いた。
I walked for 5 minutes.
a フレディーさんは１０分間しずかに座っていた。
Freddy sat quietly for 10 minutes.
This is very similar to everything else you’ve been doing up until now so it shouldn’t be any surprise. The main thing here is that you know the patterns of the minutes because it can get very confusing very quickly. Start by focusing on 1-10. Then, once you have that down everything above will be much simpler!
Hours And Minutes
Now we can combine what you’ve learned here with the “hours” chapter from before. You’ll finally be able to properly tell time! It’s quite simple, really. The pattern is:
Hour + Minute
So, that would end up being:
a ３時５０分（さんじごじゅっぷん）→ 3:50
a ２時１分（にじいっぷん）→ 2:01
a ５時３０分（ごじさんじゅっぷん）→ 5:30
a ８時７分（はちじななふん）→ 8:07
a １０時２０分（じゅうじにじゅっぷん）→ 10:20
So in theory as long as you know the hours and minutes you should be able to tell time in Japanese! There is one little extra bit of information I need to add in here though. Sometimes, when you say “30 minutes,” you use 半 instead of ３０分. Why? Because ３０分 is half (半) of one hour. Makes sense, right?
a ５時半（ごじはん）→ 5:30
a １０時半（じゅうじはん）→ 10:30
a ８時半（はちじはん）→ 8:30
a １時半（いちじはん）→ 1:30
It can be both ways, though, so it’s good to be able to use either. Besides that, the only other thing to know about telling time involves 午後 and 午前. Just like before, we add it before the hour if we need to specify AM or PM.
a 午後７時半（ごごしちじはん）→ 7:30pm
a 午後８時１０分（ごごはちじじゅっぷん）→ 8:10pm
a 午前３時半（ごぜんさんじはん）→ 3:30am
a 午前１１時４５分（ごぜんじゅういちじよんじゅうごふん）→ 11:45am
See how everything is starting to come together? Each chapter has been a puzzle piece where some pieces fit together with certain other pieces, but they all work together to finish the puzzle. Ready to see this in action and use it yourself?