分鐘 / 分钟
fan¹ zung¹
The Cantonese word for minute is 分鐘 / 分钟 (fan¹ zung¹).
分鐘 / 分钟 is used to refer to the unit of time known as a minute. When you are counting a specific number of minutes, you should use this full form rather than using the character 分 on its own.
Meaning: unit of time (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The word consists of two parts: 分 (fan1), which literally means 'part' or 'to divide' and 鐘 (zung1).
How does it change in a sentence?
In this noun, the character 鐘 is added to 分 to specifically form the unit of time.
How do you pronounce it?
fan¹ zung¹
Did you know?
- The character 鐘 in 分鐘 originally refers to a bell, but it came to mean 'clock' because bells were the primary way to signal time before mechanical clocks arrived.
- The character 分 used in 'minute' is the same character used to describe 'points' in a game or 'cent' in currency, illustrating how the concept of 'division' scales from money to time.
- The character 鐘 has a homophone 鍾 which means 'to concentrate' or 'to be fond of', making the spoken word for 'minute' sound identical to a word for 'affection'.
Examples in context
- 請等我五分鐘。Please wait for me for five minutes.
- 五分鐘Five minutes
Sources
- Wiktionary, “minute” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
