fēn zhōng
minute
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我等了你十分钟了。
wǒ děng nǐ shí fēn zhōng le.
I've been waiting for you for ten minutes.
火车十分钟后就要开了。
huǒchē shí fēn zhōng hòu jiù yào kāi le.
The train will leave in ten minutes.
你能在十分钟内完成这个任务吗？
nǐ néng zài shí fēn zhōng nèi wánchéng zhège rènwù ma?
Can you finish this task in ten minutes?
小时 (xiǎoshí)
hour
秒 (miǎo)
second
The Chinese word 分钟 (fēnzhōng) for "minute" is composed of two characters: 分 (fēn) and 钟 (zhōng). The character 分 originally meant "to divide" or "a part", and it is often used in the sense of "a fraction" or "a share". The character 钟 originally meant "a bell", and it was later used to refer to a unit of time, specifically the time it takes for a bell to ring once. Thus, the compound word 分钟 literally means "a part of a bell", and it is used to refer to a unit of time that is equal to one sixtieth of an hour.
