Telling Time in Tanzania

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Telling Time

Ni saa ngapi sasa?

Ni saa kumi.

Telling time in Tanzania is just a wee bit confusing. Once you figure out that the Swahili day (siku) has 12 daylight hours followed by 12(usiku) hours, you’ll be fine as long as you learned your numbers 1 to 12 and remember to look at the hour exactly opposite the Swahili hour mentioned. The new day begins at sunrise, or 6:00 in the morning. The night cycle begins at sunset, or 6:00 in the evening.

So just to show you how easy this is, here are a few examples. Remember that 12 is 6, 1 is 7, 2 is 8, 3 is 9, 4 is 10, 5 is 11, 6 is 12, 7 is 1, 8 is 2, 9 is 3, 10 is 4 and 11 is 5 and 12 is 6. Easy peasy! Saa means hour, robo means ¼, nusu means ½, kaso(ro) means less and dakika means minutes.

Try translating this:

Ni saa tatu kasoro dakika kumi.

Ni saa mbili na nusu.

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