I'm wondering if there are any linguistic reasons or rules that can be applied
to find out which to use, or do I just need to memorize them individually?
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2017-03-08T13:49:02.593
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2017-03-08T20:44:21.267
2017-03-08T16:56:29.603
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readings counters suffixes time rendaku
How does one know when to use ～ふん or ～ぷん when telling time in Japanese?
Well, all the Japanese counters have some irregularities. In this case, the
standard counter for minutes is ふん, but in some numbers it changes.

> 1: いっぷん 2: にふん 3: さんぷん 4: よんぷん 5: ごふん 6: ろっぷん 7: ななふん 8: はっぷん 9: きゅうふん 10:
> じゅっぷん
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2017-03-08T19:40:13.113
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There is a rule when saying 'x past the hour': if x is 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50
you say ' **~じゅっぷん** ' not '~じゅうふん'.

For example 15:10 is じゅうごじ **じゅっぷん** and 15:20 is じゅうごじ **にじゅっぷん** whilst
15:15 is じゅうごじ **じゅうごふん**.
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answer