Telling the Time in Indonesian

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

Yoan looks at a large simple round wall clock with plain hands and no numbers, checking the time. 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.

Check yourself

Four questions on what's above. Pick one and the answer explains itself. No score, no streak, nothing to sign up for.

1.A friend says setengah tiga. When should you turn up?

3:30The English reading, and it makes you an hour late. This is the trap.2:30Indonesian counts the half as belonging to the hour it's heading towards, half of the third hour. German and Dutch do the same.3:00Setengah means half. Some part of the hour is involved.

2.You want to ask the time. Jam ___?

apa'What'. It asks the identity of a thing, not a quantity.kapan'When'. It asks about a moment, not a clock reading.berapaLiterally 'hour how much'. Berapa does a lot of work in Indonesian, price, quantity, time.

3.It's 6:50 and you want to say so without risking the half-hour trap. What's safest?

Jam tujuh kurang sepuluhCorrect, 'seven less ten', but it asks the listener to do arithmetic.Jam enam lima puluhReading the digits straight out sidesteps the whole problem. Say it that way whenever you're unsure.Setengah tujuhThat's 6:30, not 6:50.

jam	hour, o'clock, clock
setengah	halfSetengah tiga is 2:30, not 3:30. See below.
lewat	past
kurang	to, beforeSame word as in bargaining.