Japanese Language Made Simpler - Lesson 18

The 4th particle, we are going to cover today is に, to express the time when an action is taking/ has taken place.

The structure of the phrase will be in this form:
[time] に[action - eg: wake up]
= [action eg: wake up] at [time]

For example:
wakes up at 8 o'clock= hachi ji ni okimasu = 八時に起きます
Hence,
I wake up at 8 o'clock. = watashi wa hachi ji ni okimasu . = 私は八時に起きます。

Other examples:

• When do you sleep? = nan ji ni nemasu ka? = 何時に寝ますか。(nemasu = sleep)

• My mother was born in 1948. = haha wa 1948 nen ni umaremashita. = 母は1948年に生まれました。(umaremasu = is given birth to)

*The above is not applicable to special time nouns such as: 明日 (tomorrow)、今日 (today)、来週 (next week), etc. "に" is omitted. For eg:

I am going to school tomorrow. = watashi wa ashita gakkou e ikimasu. = 私は明日学校へ行きます。