Chinese Lesson 3 | part 3 问时间 | #learn #Chinese #mandarin #中文 #學習 #漢語 #教學 #乾淨校園 #ganjingcampus #MyClasses

For the third part of lesson 3, we touched briefly on timing, especially how to ask about the time. 时间 time First, we have three characters here. 时 means are, 分 means minute, and 秒 means second. 时 分 秒 We can see two questions here. 现在几点了? and 现在什么时间? Both refer to the same question, what is the time now in English. 现在 means now, 什么 means what. 时间 refers to time, and 几点 is asking which are. So, what is the time now in Chinese could be 现在几点了? or 现在什么时间? One reply we can say is 现在四点? or 现在四点整? Both mean it's four o'clock now. 现在 meaning now, 整 means whole, entire, or in this case, exactly. 现在四点? 现在四点整? Another reply we can have is 现在四点零六分? which means it's four oh six now. 零 we use as a number, means zero, but here it's used to indicate the time in an hour when it is less than ten minutes in that hour. And since six minutes is less than ten minutes, we could say 现在四点零六分? to indicate that it's just a bit past four, and also to demonstrate our accuracy here. 现在四点零六分? And third reply we can have would be 现在四点十八分? 现在 again now, 四点 means four o'clock, and 十八 from the numbers we know that it means eighteen. While the 分 refers to minute, so this whole sentence would mean 现在四点十八分? Quick note to add here, in Chinese, one character can have multiple meanings, so in the examples we've shown, 分 meant minute, but it can also have a meaning of separate as well, 分. And the second 点 meaning point could be a verbal noun, but here it meant hour.