Lesson #57: What Time is it?
Today we’re going to focus on the phrase ‘What time is it?’. This is a very important phrase to know! We’ll also see how to reply with something like 'It’s 10 o'clock’. This is very important to know because think about it, you’ll never be able to make plans if you can’t tell the time! So are you ready to get straight into it? अच्छा acchaa - Great!
The phrase we’ll be using is;
कितने बजे हैं?
kitne baje hain
- What time is it?
Do you know all the words here? Let’s go through them quickly! कितने kitne means 'how much’ or 'how many’. Next we have बजे baje which comes from the verb बजना bajnaa meaning to ring or to chime. Finally of course we have हैं hain - are. So literally we’re asking 'How Many Rings?’ or 'How Many Chimes?’.
Have you got it? कितने बजे हैं? kitne baje hain - What time is it?! So now obviously we need to learn how to reply to this! Now this is so easy I promise you! But before we carry on be sure to revise over the Numbers in Hindi here.
To say One o'clock in Hindi we simply say एक बजा ek bajaa - One o'clock. So if someone asks you the time and it’s One o'clock you’d say…
कितने बजे हैं? kitne baje hain - What time is it?
एक बजा है ek bajaa hai - It’s one o'clock.
Can you see what we’ve done here? Now for any other hour we say that number and then बजे baje. Can you see the difference? For One o'clock it’s एक बजा ek bajaa and for anything else it’s that number then बजे baje! So for example we might say…
कितने बजे हैं? kitne baje hain - What time is it?
चार बजे हैं caar baje hain - It’s four o'clock.
Are you following? It’s a lot easier than you think hey! Ready for another example?
कितने बजे हैं? kitne baje hain - What time is it?
नौ बजे हैं nau baje hain - It’s nine o'clock.
Have you got it mastered now? Great! Practice telling the time in Hindi whenever you can. Here’s a tip; every time you go to say ’something o'clock’ in English, think and say what it would be Hindi. Next time, in What Time is it? Part 2, we’ll learn how to say 'Half Past’ and I’ll show you some example sentences!
