HaloBahasa

Telling the time

Indonesian asks 'hour how much', and counts minutes past and to the hour much as English does.

a1Lesson 35 of 434 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Ask and give the time
  • Use the parts of the day correctly with clock times

Asking

Jam berapa? ‘What time is it?’, literally ‘hour how much’.

On the hour

Jam tujuh. ‘Seven o’clock.’

Past and to

Jam tujuh lewat sepuluh. ‘7:10’, literally ‘seven past ten’.
Jam tujuh kurang sepuluh. ‘6:50’, literally ‘seven less ten’.

The half-hour trap

Setengah tiga is 2:30, not 3:30.

Indonesian counts the half as belonging to the hour it is heading towards: half of the third hour. German and Dutch do the same thing, which is probably where it came from. English speakers read it as “half past three” and arrive an hour late.

If you are unsure, say jam dua tiga puluh ‘2:30’ and avoid the whole problem.

Adding the part of day

The 24-hour clock exists but conversation uses the day-part words from the greetings lesson.

Jam tujuh pagi ‘7am’
Jam tujuh malam ‘7pm’
Jam dua siang ‘2pm’
Jam empat sore ‘4pm’

Without one of these, a bare jam tujuh is ambiguous, and Indonesians will normally add it automatically.

Duration versus clock time

Jam is the clock. For a length of time, use jam with a number and no jam prefix confusion:

Dua jam. ‘Two hours.’
Jam dua. ‘Two o’clock.’

Word order alone carries the difference.

Words from this lesson

jamhour, o'clock, clock
setengahhalfSetengah tiga is 2:30, not 3:30. See below.
lewatpast
kurangto, beforeSame word as in bargaining.