This project aims to create a special clock that can verbally announce the time in English, Dutch, Russian, and Chinese, enabling speakers of these languages to easily comprehend the current time.
Our clock uses PyQt6 for the interface, pydub for creating audio and PyGame for playing audio. All other requirements are provided in requirements.txt.
- English 🌐
- Dutch 🇳🇱
- Russian 🇷🇺
- Mandarin 🇨🇳
- Time Zone Selection
- Theming Control: change the face of clock and keep it even after the application is closed by saving the settings to config.ini
- Voice Speed Control
- 12/24 Format Switch
- Igor Marchenko
- Youyang Cai
- Wangyiyao (Annie) Zhou
- Yanpei (Page) Ouyang
- Yi Lei
In the Russian language, when talking about time, we have particular ways of handling minutes.
If the number of minutes isn't a multiple of five, we simply state the hours and minutes in the 24-hour format. Additionally, since there is declension in Russian, if it's one hour or one minute, we use the singular nominative form, like 'одна минута' meaning 'one minute': 19:01 Девятнадцать часов одна минута. However, when it's two, three, or four hours or minutes, we use the so-called count form, like 'две минуты' for 'two minutes': 19:02 Девятнадцать часов две минуты.
Furthermore, because Russian has gender distinction, 'hour' is masculine, and 'minute' is feminine, which affects how we say one and two: 'два часа,' but 'две минуты’.
If it's five or more hours or minutes, we switch to the plural genitive form, like 'семь минут' for 'seven minutes': 19:07 Девятнадцать часов семь минут.
When the number of minutes is divisible by five (excluding 25 and 35), we use a 12-hour system. When the amount of minutes is thirty, we use the word "half" (половина), for example, 'half of the eighth’ stands for 19:30: 19:30 Половина восьмого or Девятнадцать часов тридцать минут.
When we have five, ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes, we use the word 'minutes' in the expression, like ‘five minutes of the eighth”: 19:05 Пять минут восьмого or Девятнадцать часов пять минут
For cases like 40, 45, 50, or 55 minutes, we use the word "without" (без) followed by the remaining minutes until the next hour. For example, for 19:55, we would say ‘eight without five: 19:55 Без пяти восемь or Девятнадцать часов пятьдесят пять минут
In Chinese, the formant of telling time is:
"The current time is" + hour + "point" + minutes/"half"/"o'clock" + 'minutes'(or not)
当分钟为 00 时，我们直接说小时。
When the minutes are 00, we directly say the hour.
- 3:00: "三点整" ("Three o'clock")
- 8:00: "八点整" ("Eight o'clock")
当分钟为 30 时，我们使用“半”这个词。
When the minutes are 30, we use the word "半" (half).
- 3:30: "三点半" ("Half past three")
- 8:30: "八点半" ("Half past eight")
刻钟通常是指15分钟的一个时间段。我们通常会用“一刻”、“两刻”和“三刻”来表示。
A quarter hour usually refers to a 15-minute period. We often use "一刻" (one quarter), "两刻" (two quarters), and "三刻" (three quarters) to express this.
- 3:15: "三点一刻" 或 "三点十五" ("A quarter past three" or "Three fifteen")
- 3:45: "三点三刻" 或 "四点差一刻" ("A quarter to four" or "Three forty-five")
对于 01 到 29 和 31 到 59 分钟的时间，我们通常直接说出具体的分钟数。
For times between 01 to 29 and 31 to 59 minutes, we usually say the specific number of minutes.
- 8:20: "八点二十分" ("Eight twenty")
汉语中一般使用“上午”、“中午”和“下午”来区分时间段。
In Chinese, we generally use "上午" (morning), "中午" (noon), and "下午" (afternoon) to distinguish different parts of the day.
- 3:00 AM: "上午三点" ("Three o'clock in the morning")
- 3:00 PM: "下午三点" ("Three o'clock in the afternoon")
- 12:00 PM: "中午十二点" ("Twelve o'clock at noon")
这些是一些基本的汉语报时方式和用法。不同地区和不同个人的习惯可能会有所不同，但这些是最常见和广泛接受的表达方式。
These are some basic ways and usages of telling time in Chinese. Habits may vary by region and individual, but these are the most common and widely accepted expressions.
🔆然而，在我们的项目中，我们没有采用过于复杂的汉语时间表达方式。千禧年后，普通话母语者很少使用“一刻”这个词
🔆However, in our project, we have not adopted overly complex Chinese time expressions. After the millennium, native Chinese speakers rarely say "一刻"(Quarter) in Mandarin.
In English, the basic formant of telling time is:
"The current time is" + hour + minutes + "AM/PM"
When the minutes are 00, we use the phrase "o'clock".
"The current time is" + hour + "o'clock" + "AM/PM
- 3:00: "It's three o'clock."
- 8:00: "It's eight o'clock."
When the minutes are 30, we use the phrase "half past".
"The current time is" + "half past" + hour + "AM/PM"
- 3:30: "It's half past three."
- 8:30: "It's half past eight."
When the minutes are 15, we use the phrase "quarter past".
"The current time is" + "quarter past " + hour + "AM/PM"
- 3:15: "It's quarter past three."
- 8:15: "It's quarter past eight."
When the minutes are 45, we use the phrase "quarter to" for the next hour.
"The current time is" + "quarter to " + (1 if hour == 12 else hour + 1) + "AM/PM"
- 2:45: "It's quarter to three."
- 7:45: "It's quarter to eight."
For times between 01 and 29 minutes past the hour, we say the number of minutes after "past".
- 3:05: "It's five past three."
- 8:20: "It's twenty past eight."
For times between 31 and 59 minutes past the hour, we say the number of minutes before "to" the next hour.
- 2:50: "It's ten to three."
- 7:40: "It's twenty to eight."
To distinguish between morning and afternoon/evening, we use "AM" for times from midnight to just before noon, and "PM" for times from noon to just before midnight.
- 3:00 AM: "It's three o'clock in the morning."
- 3:00 PM: "It's three o'clock in the afternoon."
The recordings in this project are provided exclusively by members of our team. The voice for Chinese is from Youyang Cai, for Russian is from Igor Marchenko, and for English, it's Annie Zhou. Dutch speech synthesis was generated using Google's gTTS. Therefore, the clock data in this project complies with GDPR regulations.