This is the smartphone version. The earlier and fuller version, which discusses the Indonesian language as well, can be found here. 

Lesson 9 (Telling the time)

Click to listen to the Malay sentences.

A second reading (by Michelle Nor Ismat, a native speaker)

NOTE:
1. In the words setengah and sepuluh above the se is actually the abbreviated form of satu.
2. While berapa is used to ask the time, it also means "How many" as in Berapa orang datang? (How many people came?). It can also mean "How much" eg. Berapakah gaji anda? (How much is your salary?)

In the absence of a teacher, the table below will help you practise saying the time (up to 59 minutes):

When you want to tell the time in Malay you always start with the word pukul (literally means to hit - think of hitting a gong to announce the time). What follows is exactly like telling the time in English. Thus "It is 9h25" (nine twenty-five) is translated as Pukul 9 (sembilan) 25 (dua puluh lima).
If you like to do so you can add minit for the minutes but this is not really necessary, eg. Pukul sembilan dua puluh lima or Pukul sembilan dua puluh lima minit are both correct.
Apart from announcing the time pukul is also used in the sense of beating (hitting) a person eg. Dia memberitahu polis bahawa dia telah dipukul oleh dua orang samseng. (He told the police that he was beaten up by two gangsters). The word oleh means "by" (as used in passive sentences).

For those who want to know more

To tell someone the time you usually start with Pukul or Jam (this is more frequent in Indonesia) followed by the actual time but if you are asking someone AT what time he sleeps, for example, you have to precede it with the preposition pada (= at here). Eg. Anda tidur pada pukul berapa?
In such cases you might want to use the word biasanya (usually) eg. Saya biasanya habis kerja pada pukul enam petang. (I usually finish work at six in the evening.)
By the way jam is pronounced as "jump" without the final p sound and not as what you smear on your bread! It also means "a clock" while jam tangan means a watch.
As you have already seen in Lesson 7 pada is also used with days of the week eg. pada hari Isnin (on Monday). Similarly pada hari jadinya means "on his birthday".
It is also used with months eg. pada bulan Mac (in March) though you are more likely to hear dalam bulan Mac.
Thus depending on the usage pada can mean "at", "on" or "in".
Jam berapa? is sometimes used instead of Pukul berapa? and is the standard way of asking the time in Indonesia. But if the two words are reversed (Berapa jam?) then it means "How many hours?"
You should not be confused over this as Berapa? by itself means "How many" (eg. Berapa orang datang? = How many people came?). It can also mean "How much" in the case of Berapa harganya? (= How much is it? or literally "How much is the price".)
Berapa jam on the other hand means "how many hours" as in the example below:
Berapa jam untuk perjalanan kereta api dari Singapura ke Kuala Lumpur? (How many hours is the train journey from Singapore to KL?). By the way don't be surprised if you see kereta api contracted to keretapi.
2h15 is pukul dua suku (suku means a quarter) although it is perfectly correct (and quite common) to simply say, as in English, pukul dua lima belas (minit).
We might as well take this occasion to learn the common fractions: one quarter is suku, half is setengah and three-quarters is tiga suku.
Thus 9h45 is pukul sembilan tiga suku or pukul sembilan empat puluh lima (minit).
By all means use tiga suku each time you want to say "three-quarters" but make sure you don't use it for a person as Dia tiga suku would mean that the person you are referring to is half-crazy!
To distinguish between 06h00 and 18h00 you would say Pukul enam pagi for 06h00 and Pukul enam petang for 18h00. When it's in the early part of the afternoon eg. 14h00 you can say Pukul dua tengah hari. (Note: "tengah hari" which literally means "noon" and not "setengah hari".)

Ready to practise telling the time and day in Malay for real? If so   go here!  

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