Shihou or Shijian? （时候还是时间？）

Wondering what the difference is and in what context you use which. Been confusing me for a while..

One of my sources says that expressions with shíhou (shénme shíhou, xiǎo de shíhou) involve specific periods of time. Expressions with shíjiān involve time in a more abstract sense: - Méiyǒu shíjiān chīfàn. (There's no time to eat) - Wǒ yǒu shíjiān. (I have time) - Shíjiān bù zǎole. (It's getting late) Also, shíjiān means time as a quantity while shíhou means point in time. For instance, - Nǐ shénme shíhou qù Běijīng? (When are you going to Beijing?) - Nǐ shì shénme shíhou qù Běijīng de? (When did you go to Beijing?) requires an answer that is specific in time.

sweet, that was a great answer, I appreciate the help!

Also my thanks, I have been wondering about it for a while as well. And by the way, that language does a "sinophile" learn?

大家好！ Thank you very much Robert for that perfect explanation of the difference between 时间 and 时候! 大家继续努力吧！ - Lin Ping