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Basic Malay language course of 64 lessons by pgoh13
Lesson 9: Telling the time in Malay

Exercises in telling the time.....

To avoid any possible misunderstanding in interpreting the time, the 24-hour time is shown here. But in spoken Malay you are expected to use the 12-hour time and say pagi, tengah hari, petang or malam after it depending on whether it is morning, afternoon, evening or night. By the way the word sekarang (meaning now) can also be put at the beginning or at the end of the question so Sekarang pukul berapa di Perancis? and Pukul berapa di Perancis sekarang? are both equally correct.

This is a running clock. It will update the time every second. If you prefer a fixed clock (more practical for students struggling to say the time in Malay) go to the block in orange below.


The times below will stay fixed. This is more practical for students because by the time you come up with the correct answer, the time might have changed!
In your answer remember to use the 12-hour time and say pagi, tengah hari, petang or malam after it depending on whether it is morning, afternoon, evening or night.


It is now 15:22 (Wednesday) in France
Pukul berapa sekarang di Perancis?
Sekarang pukul 15:22 di Perancis

It is now 02:22 (Thursday) in Auckland (France +11/+12 hours)
Pukul berapa sekarang di Auckland?
Sekarang pukul 02:22 di Auckland

It is now 03:22 (Wednesday) in Honolulu (France -11/-12 hours)
Pukul berapa sekarang di Honolulu?
Sekarang pukul 03:22 di Honolulu

NOTE: By the way the times shown above could be wrong by an hour. Not to worry, just practise saying the time that appears. But if you see that the time is different from that given in the green table and you want to practise saying that the time is incorrect, then say Tidak benar, jam itu tidak betul. Sebenarnya pukul _____ sekarang di ________!
I don't think I have mentioned it before. Sebenarnya... means "Actually...".

..... and the day of the week

A quick revision: hari Ahad (Sunday), Isnin (Monday), Selasa (Tuesday), Rabu (Wednesday), Khamis (Thursday), Jumaat (Friday), Sabtu (Saturday)

Fill in the day of the week below with its Malay equivalent:

It is Wednesday in France
Hari apa di Perancis?
Hari _______ di Perancis

It is Thursday in Auckland
Hari apa di Auckland?
Hari _______ di Auckland

It is Wednesday in Honolulu
Hari apa di Honolulu?
Hari _______ di Honolulu

..... and 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'

Practices in using Kelmarin and Esok

Note: Some states in Malaysia use kelmarin while others use semalam for "yesterday". If semalam is used in the state where you are, replace kelmarin below with semalam.
Note that the verb "to be" (is, was, will be) is not needed in the Malay sentences below.

Today (is) Wednesday in France = Hari ini hari Rabu di Perancis
Yesterday (was) Tuesday in France = Kelmarin hari Selasa di Perancis
Tomorrow (will be) Thursday in France = Esok hari Khamis di Perancis

Today (is) Thursday in Auckland = Hari ini hari Khamis di Auckland
From the above sentence make the following deductions:
Kelmarin hari __________
Esok hari __________

Today (is) Wednesday in Honolulu = Hari ini hari Rabu di Honolulu
From the above sentence make the following deductions:
Kelmarin hari __________
Esok hari __________


You want some more? Go here for the day and time in other cities/countries.
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