Centre for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language University of Oxford

Basic Spoken Mandarin

4. Asking the time  

You click on the Chinese characters, Chinese sentences or the headphone icons to hear the pronunciation. Place the cursor on the English words to view Pinyin for the pronunciation and the Chinese word order.

New words Additional words New phrases
Now 现在 Shop 商店 What time is it? 现在几点？
What time? 几点 Watch, read, look 看 The bank opens at 8. 银行8点开门
...o'clock 点 Film, movie 电影 What time is the flight? 几点的飞机？
1，2，3，4，5，6，7，8，9,  10 1，2，3，4，5，6，7，8，9, 10 Take (transport), travel by, sit 坐    
Open (for business) 开门 You 你    
Airplane, flight 飞机 He, she, it 他，她，它    
[Sentence particle] 的 I, me 我    

Exercises

How do you say

What time are you going to the hotel? I am going to the hotel at 5 o'clock.

What time is the flight to Xi'an?  10:15 

What time are you going to see the film?  I am going to watch the one at 9 o'clock 

What time does the restaurant open? 5:30

Click here to listen to the following dialogues.