It is about time to talk about “time” in Twi. Telling the time in Twi is not really difficult at all. All you basically need to know is how to count from 1 to 12 and a few other words. It’s pretty easy.

If you don’t know how to count in Twi, you can read the article on counting from zero to ten in Twi to get a fair idea before you continue with this article.

We shall learn about morning and afternoon time. Let’s acquaint ourselves with a few words.

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Dɔn and Nnɔn are very important words when telling the time in Twi. The use of dɔn and its plural form nnɔn, were adapted from the ringing of bells in church buildings to tell the time. The best example is Big Ben in the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster.

OK.. let’s start with day time; 6:00 – 11:00 AM

MORNING

6:00 – 10:00 AM = anɔpa nnɔn + (number)

AFTERNOON

12:00 – 3:00 PM = awia nnɔn + (number)

**Note that when it’s 1 p.m. we don’t say nnɔn but dɔn, because it is only one bell ring. We also don’t say baako, we say ko or koro.

At 12:00 PM we can also say prεmtoberε. This is a little used word that you may not hear outside Kumasi. The histroy behind the word, goes that in the days after the Sagrenti War that saw the exiling of the Asante king Prempeh I, the British built an outpost in Kumasi. Everyday at 12 PM a soldier would shoot a Perry gun to let the natives know the time and also to instill fear. The Asantes didn’t know how to pronounce Perry properly, so they would say Prεm ato, which translates as Perry has been shot. The time the Perry gun was shot, 12 PM, then became prεmtoberε. When broken down, Prεmtoberε is Prεm – Perry / to – shoot / berε – time.

That’s all for morning and afternoon. Hope you enjoyed the article. Please stick around and we will learn about evening and night time in the next article.

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