‘分钟’ (fēn zhōng) is the standard Chinese word for ‘minute’ as a unit of time — specifically, one-sixtieth of an hour. It combines two characters: ‘分’ (fēn), which on its own can mean ‘part’, ‘portion’, or ‘minute’, and ‘钟’ (zhōng), meaning ‘clock’ or ‘bell’. Together, they literally evoke ‘a portion of the clock’s cycle’, reflecting how traditional timekeeping divided hours into smaller segments. The term is used exclusively for time measurement, never for ‘minute’ as in ‘very small’ (which is ‘微小’ or ‘极小’).

You’ll encounter ‘分钟’ frequently in daily life — telling time, scheduling appointments, cooking instructions, exercise routines, and transportation announcements. Unlike English, Chinese doesn’t use ‘minutes’ with numbers greater than one without measure words; instead, you say ‘三分钟’ (sān fēn zhōng), not *‘三分钟s’. It’s always used with a numeral or demonstrative (e.g., ‘这分钟’, ‘那分钟’) and functions as a countable noun requiring a number or quantifier before it.