Okay, so today I wanted to figure out how to say “wall clock” in Japanese. It sounds simple, but sometimes these everyday things have specific words you wouldn’t just guess by translating directly.
My first instinct was, well, “wall” is 壁 (kabe) and “clock” is 時計 (tokei). So, maybe 壁時計 (kabedokei)? I punched that into a few online dictionaries and translation tools. Yeah, it showed up, seemed logical enough. Like “wall-clock”. Makes sense, right?
But then I thought, is that what people actually say? Sometimes the literal translation isn’t the most common way. So I started digging around a bit more. I tried searching on some Japanese shopping sites, looking at the categories for clocks.
Finding the Common Term
And that’s where I saw 掛け時計 (kakedokei) pop up way more often. I recognized 時計 (tokei) for clock, but had to look up 掛け (kake). It comes from the verb 掛ける (kakeru), which means “to hang”.
Ah! So, “hanging clock”. That actually makes a lot of sense for a wall clock, because, you know, you hang it on the wall.
So, comparing the two:
- 壁時計 (kabedokei): Literally “wall clock”. Understandable, but seems less frequent in my searches.
- 掛け時計 (kakedokei): Literally “hanging clock”. Seems to be the standard, common term you’d see in stores or hear people use.
I tried looking for examples of people talking about clocks, maybe in blogs or forums. Again, 掛け時計 (kakedokei) seemed to be the go-to word people used naturally when referring to the kind of clock you put up on a wall.
So, my conclusion after poking around is that while 壁時計 (kabedokei) isn’t technically wrong, the much more common and natural-sounding word is 掛け時計 (kakedokei). It’s funny how sometimes the most direct translation isn’t the one people use day-to-day. Learned something new!
