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In this chapter, we learn to tell the time as well as to express specific durations.
Hours of the Day
The hours of the day is expressed using tiam4 for "o'clock", and hoon1 for the minutes (it's the same word used in math for points or marks). In Penang Hokkien, minutes are commonly counted according to the numbers on the clock face, and are expressed with jee3.On its own, jee means word. It is a homophone to jee (number two), but written with different characters in Hokkien.When using jee, the numbers are suffixed with the classifier leh2. Seconds are expressed with miau4.
Tiam4: o'clock
Hoon1: minute
Miau4: second
Jie3: minutes in fives
kooi1-tiam4: what time
tee3-see2: when
There is no AM and PM in Penang Hokkien. This is expressed through context with the time of the day, such as:cha1-khee4 (morning)
jit1-tau3 (afternoon)
erh3-por1 (evening)
ar1-meh2 (night)
pua1-meh2 (midnight)
pua1 means half. It is used for "half past" in expressing time of day, and also (as shown above) pua-meh, meaning midnight (literally middle-half of the night).
et tiam: One o'clock (1:00)
et tiam chit hoon: One o'clock and one minute (1:01)
et tiam chit-leh jee: Five past one (1:05), literally one o'clock (and) one jee
et tiam goh-leh jee: Twenty-five past one (1:25), literally one o'clock (and) five jee
et tiam pua: Half past one (1:30), literally one o'clock (and) half
et tiam kau-leh jee: A quarter to two (1:45), literally one o'clock (and) nine jee
jee tiam: Two o'clock (2:00). jee tiam si-leh jee: Twenty past two (2:20), literally two o'clock (and) four jee
lark tiam pua: Half past six (6:30), literally six o'clock (and) half
ch'arp tiam: Ten o'clock (10:00)
ch'arp-et tiam: Eleven o'clock (11:00)
ch'arp-jee tiam pua Half past twelve (12:30).
Kooi-tiam liau?: What time is it?
Ch'arp-tiam liau.: It's ten o'clock.
Kooi-tiam lu lai?: What time did you come?
Wah lai sarh-tiam: I came at three.
Durations
Tiam1-cheng1: hour
Hoon3-cheng1: minute
Miau4: second
chor3-ku4: how long (a time)
tarn4: wait
nee4: (particle) and / how about
chit tiam-cheng: an hourchit tiam-cheng goh-hoon: an hour and five minutes
chit tiam-cheng pua: an hour and a half
si-ch'arp hoon-cheng: 40 minutes
goh-ch'arp-goh miau: 55 seconds
Lu tarn chor-ku?: How long did you wait?
Wah tarn norh-tiam-cheng: I waited for two hours.
Lu nee?: How about you?
Wah tarn chit-tiam-cheng-pua.: I waited one and a half hours.
View Glossary of Penang Hokkien Words
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