# Meaning of the abbreviation "KL" in Swedish date/time designation? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 2, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211 "2023-02-02T15:46:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/1 "2023-02-02T15:46:40Z")
See poster below: [![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/World_Slavery_Tour_Gothenburg_Poster.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/World_Slavery_Tour_Gothenburg_Poster.jpg) The venue is the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden. The date and time would be expressed in North America as Saturday, November 3rd, 7:30 p.m. What does the “ **KL** ” after “ **NOV** ” designate? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/2 "2023-02-02T16:08:56Z")
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kl.#Swedish](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kl.#Swedish) > [@](#): > > Swedish > Noun > > kl. > > ``` > o'clock; Abbreviation of klockan. > > Föredraget börjar kl. 19 > > The lecture begins at 7 pm > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/3 "2023-02-02T16:24:43Z")
Thanks! I had thought that “KL” went with “NOV” because of the spacing. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/4 "2023-02-02T16:28:11Z")
Is 7:30 o’clock a normal way of saying the time there? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/5 "2023-02-02T16:40:45Z")
I can imagine cases where a time expressed only by number might be ambiguous, even time in 24-hour format. We in the US tend to use the colon to show hours and minutes of the time (e.g. 7:00); in gnoitall’s example they didn’t even say 1900, just 19, for 7 pm. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/6 "2023-02-02T17:04:55Z")
Sweden reporting. The poster says 19.30 (7:30 pm). No one would actually say nineteen - thirty though, everyone would say half past seven, or half eight. In context of the poster _kl_ would be redundant. I just checked Ticketmaster’s Swedish site and nowhere do they use _kl_. However they follow the convention of using colon, so concert times are given as 19:30 and I think that Swedish is shifting that way too. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/7 "2023-02-02T17:27:56Z")
> [@Charlie\_Tan](#): > > However they follow the convention of using colon, so concert times are given as 19:30 and I think that Swedish is shifting that way too. But that poster is from the _World Slavery_ tour of 1984, so perhaps that usage was less unusual nearly 40 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/8 "2023-02-02T17:28:23Z")
If it’s relevant: The poster in the OP is from 1984. EDIT: _Like **gnoitall** said_ It also occurs to me that the typesetter or whoever may not have been a native Swedish speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/9 "2023-02-02T17:52:08Z")
It strikes me as completely redundant - what other information besides the time could the “19.30” bit in the OP’s example possibly encode? Even “7.30” would be unambiguous, since it’s unlikely that a heavy metal concert would take place at half past seven in the morning. The only slight ambiguity I see here is the usage of a point instead of a colon to separate hours from minutes, but I suppose it’s very unlikely that the point is meant to indicate a decimalised expression of time in the manner of Swatch’s “beats”, i.e., seven o’clock and 30/100 of an hour (which would be 7:18). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/10 "2023-02-02T17:56:14Z")
> [@Schnitte](#): > > what other information besides the time could the “19.30” bit in the OP’s example possibly encode? Language is not code. We routinely use language that would technically be redundant if each element had to correspond to unique information. However, that doesn’t define normal, correct usage. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/11 "2023-02-02T19:40:28Z")
I didn’t check the year, but from context I knew it was old. > [@Schnitte](#): > > It strikes me as completely redundant - what other information besides the time could the “19.30” bit in the OP’s example possibly encode? Right. The normal everyday spoken usage of 24hr time is when there is a risk of ambiguity. Timetables ASF. However for events there’s the exception. Concerts, movies, sports all get the 24hr style. Mostly due to convention and inertia. > [@Schnitte](#): > > suppose it’s very unlikely that the point is meant to indicate a decimalised expression of time Especially as we use the comma for that. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-the-abbreviation-kl-in-swedish-date-time-designation/979211/12 "2023-02-02T22:09:02Z")
Apparently, customary printed time in Sweden is expressed as a 24-hour clock with a full stop (period) between hours and minutes, as shown in that poster. At least, if Wikipedia can be believed. > **[Date and time notation in Sweden | Time](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Sweden#Time)** > > Times are written with the 24-hour clock, with full stops as separators (although colons are sometimes used instead of full stops)\[citation needed\]. However, seconds are usually left out if the additional precision is not required; for example: 23.59, or sometimes 23.59.00. Leading zeros are mostly used in time notation (i.e. 04.00 is more common than 4.00). In spoken Swedish however, the 12-hour clock is much more common. The written notation can be pronounced directly with the equivalent of "an...