How are these Japanesse phrases translated?

Hello everyone!

I’m trying to learn Japanese but sometimes I don’t understand the meaning of the words with the translation. For these phrases:

なんじ ごろ かえって くる

5じ に は かえって くる

With the context, I understand it’s something like “At what time will you come back?” “I’ll come back at 5 o’clock” but I can’t analize the phrase word by word, anyone knows what each word means?

Thank you very much!!!

Hi RachBourne, your translation is pretty close.
なんじ means “what time”, ごろ means “about”, かえって means “to return”, and くる means come. Although you can think of かえってくる as a compound word that means “to come back” if that makes it easier. So that first sentence would mean, “About what time will you come back?”

Your translation of the second sentence is sounds right. Is a specific word confusing you?

Hello!! thanks a lot for your reply.

To be honest, I feel confuse with the meaning of the words, because they’re not all translated in the lesson, and the “Google transl” sometimes gives meanings which don’t make sense with the sentence if you don’t have imagination. I completely supposed the meaning because the reply in the dialogue started with “5じ” so I guessed it was that.

With the second sentence, my problem is: the “に” and the “は”, how are used there? what’s the meaning/grammatical function? In other words, when may I use those particles, what for? Now that I know that “かえって くる” means “to come back”, my only doubt is in those particles.

Thanks again for your help :slight_smile:

5じ に は かえって くる
The translation of this sentence is “I’ll come back by 5 o’clock.” “by 5 o’clock” or “until 5 o’clock”

We also say 5じまで には かえってくる. 5じ(まで)には

The word “まで” is abbreviated. The above sentences are the same.

I’m Japanese, but I can’t explain the grammatical function.

Here are the examples.
6じには かえってきなさい。 (Japanese mom often says to her child.)
8じには かえってくるからね。 (Japanese husband often says to his wife.)
あさ8じには がっこうにきなさい。 (Come to school by 8 in the morning.)
よる10じには ねなさい。 (Go to bed by 10 p.m. )

5じに かえってくる I’ll be back at 5 o’clock.
5じごろに かえってくる I’ll be back at around 5 o’clock.

Hope this helps. Gambatte kudasai

The particles に and は in this example might be better explained as one particle in this case: には. In this example, think of には as meaning “in regards to” as in “In regards to 5 o’clock, I will come back.”

@nobuo - I didn’t realize that まで was assumed but left out in that type of sentence. Thanks, I learned something new.

Thanks!!! It’s so much more clear now to me, thank you Cgreen and thanks Nobuo for the examples :slight_smile:

Not a problem. Glad I could help and good luck in your studies.