何時

Japanese

Kanji in this term
何	時

Etymology 1

From Old Japanese.

The presence of other Old Japanese indefinites beginning with い (i) suggests a possible shared root of い (i, possibly “what” or “which”).

Likely cognate with eastern Old Japanese word izu, idzu (“where”), still used in modern Japanese as part of the word いずれ (izure, “which”).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA: [it͡sɯᵝ]

Pronoun

何時 (hiragana いつ, romaji itsu)

1. when, what time

Usage notes

Itsu is most often spelled in hiragana as いつ. Itsu is more commonly used to mean when in terms of dates or days, while nanji is more commonly used to mean when in terms of time of day.

Derived terms

• 何時も (いつも, itsu mo): always, forever, all the time

Etymology 2

Compound of 何 (nan, “what”) +‎ 時 (ji, “hour”). The nan portion is from Old Japanese, the ji portion is a borrowing from Middle Chinese.

Pronunciation

• Yutōyomi
• IPA: [nã̠ɴd͡ʑi]

Pronoun

何時 (hiragana なんじ, romaji nanji)

1. what time, when

Usage notes

Nanji is often spelled in kanji. Nanji is more commonly used to mean when in terms of time of day, while itsu is more commonly used to mean when in terms of dates or days.

Etymology 3

Compound of Old Japanese elements 何 (nan, “what”) +‎ 時 (toki, “time”). The toki changes to doki due to rendaku (連濁).

Pronunciation

• Kun'yomi
• IPA: [nã̠ɴdo̞ki]

Alternative forms

• 何刻

Pronoun

何時 (hiragana なんどき, romaji nandoki)

1. what time, when

Usage notes

Use is more limited than nanji or itsu. Most commonly found in set phrase いつなんどき (itsu nandoki), comparable to English phrase “when and at what time”, but only used when expressing ignorance, never used in questions.

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Mandarin

simpl.		何时
trad.		何時

Pronoun

何時 (traditional, Pinyin héshí, simplified 何时))

1. (literary) when; what time

References

• "何時" (in Mandarin), Guoyu Cidian On-line Mandarin Dictionary (國語辭典). URL accessed on 2008-04-06.
• 2007, Hanyu Da Cidian 3.0 (in Mandarin), Hong Kong: Commercial Press, ISBN 9789620702778: