Grammar Notes 6A-2 (11-18)

ごろ and ぐらい are suffixes to indicate approximation of time (about or approximately). ごろ is limited to approximating clock time (NOT duration of time). In contrast, ぐらい is used for approximating length of time.

	Num + ごろ	Num + ぐらい
On the Clock	よじごろです。	よじぐらいです。	It's about 4 o'clock.
Length of Time	Not used	30ぷんぐらいです。	It's about 30 minutes.

FYI: In casual conversation, ぐらい may be used as general approximation for everything including clock time expressions (３じぐらい rather than the officially correct ３じごろ). However, this may be marked incorrect in formal tests like JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test).

Click on the words (あさ, ひる, ゆうがた, よる, ごぜん, ごご) in the picture and listen to the pronunciation.

あさ or morning is from dawn till noon. あさの９じ means 9 o'clock in the morning.

ひる or daytime is from noon to right before dusk. ひるの１２じ means 12 noon. (FYI: 12 p.m. in English is ごご０じ in Japanese. Never say ごご１２じ by translating 12 p.m. directly.)

ゆうがた or late afternoon roughly refers to the time when the sun is setting. ゆうがたの５じ means 5 o'clock towards evening.

よる or evening starts after dark. よるの１２じ means 12 midnight. (FYI: 12 a.m. in English is ごぜん０じ in Japanese. Never say ごぜん１２じ by translating 12 a.m. directly.)

To say 3:00 a.m., you say ごぜんさんじ, not さんじごぜん. The same word order rule applies to ごご (p.m.). To say 7 o'clock in the morning, you say あさ(の)７じ, not ７じあさ. Except for ごぜん and ごご, the particle の is required.

Time of day		Num	じ
ごぜん／ごご		６	じ	6 a.m./p.m.
あさ／よる	の	７	じ	7 o'clock in the morning/evening
ひる／よる	の	１２	じ	12 noon/midnight
あさ／ゆうがた	の	５	じ	5 o'clock in the morning/(late) afternoon
ごぜん		０	じ	12 a.m. or 12 midnight
ごご		０	じ	12 p.m. or 12 noon

The あります verb we learned earlier can be used to state the time of organized activities (often involving one person) such as classes, meetings, part-time jobs, etc. A1 below asks WHAT organized activities does the listener have at a given time by using the TimeにXがあります pattern.

		Timeに	Xが	あります
A1:	リーさんは	３じに	なにが	ありますか。	What do you have at 3 o'clock?
B1:			クラスが	あります。	I have a class (at 3).
A2:	リーさんは	なんじに	クラスが	ありますか。	What time do you have a class?
B2:		３じに		あります。	I have (it) at 3.

To respond to a Yes-No question, one can answer by simply saying ええ、あります or いいえ、ありません as shown in B1 and B2 below. (FYI: You cannot use ええ、そうです or いいえ、そうじゃありません here. The latter ones are used only in response to noun sentence questions.)

If you need to qualify your negative answers, the particle はわnormally replaces が as shown in (B3) below. If what's negated is not the subject as shown in (B4) below, the particle はわis added. (This はわis called the "contrastive はわ.")

		Timeに	Xが	あります
A1:	リーさんは	ごご１じに	クラスが	ありますか。	Do you have a class at 1 p.m.
B1:	ええ、			あります。	Yes, I do.
B2:	いいえ、			ありません。	No, I don't.
To qualify your negative answers:
B3:	いいえ、		クラスは	ありません。	No, I don't have a class.
B4:	いいえ、	ごご１じには		ありません。	No, I don't at one p.m.

Instead of the person, organized activities can become the topic of the sentence. The verb sentence can be rephrased as a shorter noun sentence by replacing the にあります with です. Make sure you drop the particle に when you use Timeです expressions.

Xはわ	Timeに	あります or です
じゅぎょうは	ごご１じに	あります。	The class is at one p.m.
じゅぎょうは	ごご１じ	です。	[Short version. に is not used.]

The following examples show other possible topics besides organized activities. Note that the second half of the sentence is no longer limited to just Timeにあります.

きょうは	クラスがあります。	Today, there is a class.
日本は	いま ごご１１じです。	In Japan, it is 11 p.m. now.

Two nouns まえ and あと can express the notion of before and after respectively as shown below. The particle に is NOT required if です follows まえ or あと.

Topicはわ	Time or Activityの	まえ(に) あと(に)
えいがは	じゅぎょうの	まえ	です。	The movie is before the class.
えいがは	じゅぎょうの	まえに	あります。	There is a movie before the class.
じゅぎょうは	えいがの	あと	です。	The class is after the movie.
じゅぎょうは	えいがの	あとに	あります。	There is a class after the movie.

Two particles から (from) and まで (to/till) can be used to discuss the time something starts and the time it ends. Both ～です and ～あります can be used to discuss the schedule of this kind. (The particle に is not needed for the verb あります if you use から and まで.)

Topicはわ	Timeから	Timeまで
じゅぎょうは	１０じから		です。	The class is from 10.
じゅぎょうは		１１じまで	です。	The class is until 11.
じゅぎょうは	１０じから	１１じまで	です。	The class is from 10 to 11.
えいがは	３じから	５じ まで	あります。	The movie is from 3 to 5.

The date of the month is referred to by the 月がつ and 日にち counters. The first through tenth of the month are exceptions as noted below by the yellow flag (). In addition, fourteenth (14th), twentieth (20th) and twenty-fourth (24th) are exceptional.

Date of the month
いちにち ついたち	１日	1 day; 1st of the month	As you can see, days 1 through 10 have special words typically ending in ～か. 一日 and 1日 are exceptions to these exceptions.   The date references to the 2nd through the 10th of the month are similar to ～つ counter to be introduced in Lesson 9 (JAPN 1002).
ふつか	２日	2 days or 2nd
みっか	３日	3 days or 3rd
よっか	４日	4 days or 4th
いつか	５日	5 days or 5th
むいか	６日	6 days or 6th
なのか	７日	7 days or 7th
ようか	８日	8 days or 8th
ここのか	９日	9 days or 9th
とおか	１０日	10 days or 10th
じゅういちにち	１１日	11 days or 11th	From the 11th day of the month, the date references become more regular as they end with ～にち except for the dates ending in 4 (i.e., 4th, 14th, and 24th) and 20th which has ～か ending like the dates 1 through 10 introduced above.   Beyond 31 days, all number of days are referred to as ～にち. This is seen in song titles like "365 Nichi no Māchi" (365日のマーチ) and "365 Nichi no Kamihikōki (365日の紙飛行機)."
じゅうににち	１２日	12 days or 12th
じゅうさんにち	１３日	13 days or 13th
じゅうよっか	１４日	14 days or 14th
じゅうごにち	１５日	15 days or 15th
じゅうろくにち	１６日	16 days or 16th
じゅうしちにち じゅうななにち	１７日	17 days or 17th
じゅうはちにち	１８日	18 days or 18th
じゅうくにち	１９日	19 days or 19th
はつかハツカ	２０日	20 days or 20th
にじゅういちにち	２１日	21 days or 21st
にじゅうににち	２２日	22 days or 22nd
にじゅうさんにち	２３日	23 days or 23rd
にじゅうよっか	２４日	24 days or 24th
にじゅうごにち	２５日	25 days or 25th
にじゅうろくにち	２６日	26 days or 26th
にじゅうしちにち にじゅうななにち	２７日	27 days or 27th
にじゅうはちにち	２８日	28 days or 28th
にじゅうくにち	２９日	29 days or 29th
さんじゅうにち	３０日	30 days or 30th
さんじゅういちにち	３１日	31 days or 31st
なんにち	何日	How many days?　 What date?
Months
いちがつ	１月	January	🌸To remember which months have fewer than 31 days, Japanese uses a clever mnemonic called にしむくさむらい (“the samurai facing west”). Written in hiragana, each part corresponds to a month with fewer than 31 days: に → 2 (February) し → 4 (April) む → 6 (June; む comes from 　　　　むいか, “the sixth”) く → 9 (September) さむらい → 11 (November) The final word さむらい can also be written with the kanji 士, which visually breaks down into 十 (10) and 一 (1), together forming 11. This reinforces the association with November.
にがつ	２月	February
さんがつ	３月	March
しがつ	４月	April
ごがつ	５月	May
ろくがつ	６月	June
しちがつ	７月	July
はちがつ	８月	August
くがつ	９月	September
じゅうがつ	１０月	October
じゅういちがつ	１１月	November
じゅうにがつ	１２月	December
なんがつ	何月	What month?

Years 何年（なんねん）: What year? 何年間（なんねんかん）: How many years? 令和 ( れいわ ) 1年 2019年 令和2年 2020年 令和3年 2021年 令和4年 2022年 令和5年 2023年 令和6年 2024年 令和7年 2025年 令和8年 2026年 令和9年 2027年 令和10年 2028年 … …

🌸 What happened in 2019? In 2019, Japan experienced a rare and historic era change when 平成 (Heisei) ended and 令和 (Reiwa) began. This transition occurred on May 1, 2019, following the abdication of Emperor Akihito, the first Japanese emperor to step down in over 200 years. Upon the accession of his son, Emperor Naruhito, the new era name Reiwa—meaning “beautiful harmony”—officially came into use. The change had wide-ranging social and administrative effects, as dates on official documents, calendars, computer systems, and everyday life all shifted to the new era designation.

Conversation Example:

A:	きょうは何月何日(なんがつなんにち)ですか。	What date is today?
B:	六月(ろくがつ)二日(ふつか) です。	It's June second.
A:	おやすみは いつから いつまでですか。	From when till when is your vacation?
B:	十四日(じゅうよっか)から十九日(じゅうくにち) です。	It's from the 14th to the 19th.
A:	六日間むいかかん (むいかかん)ですね。	It's six days, right?
B:	そうです。	That's right.