In English speaking countries where time is expressed using a twenty four hour clock instead of a twelve hour clock (i.e. 13:00 instead of 1:00 PM, 23:00 instead of 11:00 PM), do people living there say the time is “thirteen o’clock” or “twenty one o’clock?”
What country uses the military style?
Peace,
mangeorge
In Britain you might see times written down in 24-hour clock format (especially for train and air timetables etc.), but people only ever use that terminology when reading directly from the page to quote such a timetable, e.g. “The train to Bristol leaves at fourteen hundred”.
If you met a person in the street during the afternoon and asked them what time it was they’d always tell you “two o’clock” or whatever.
I don’t believe anyone would say 13 o’clock or 23 o’clock. Usually when someone uses military time (24 hour clock) they use hours instead of o’clock.
0001-2400
Are there any such countries? As far as I’m aware we all use the 12 hour format except for military and others who use time in a professional sense and use 24 hour to avoid confusion.
As has already been said, 24 hour time is expressed as “oh one hundred” for 0100 or “thirteen hundred” for 1300. 12 hour is expressed as something ‘o’ clock with either AM or PM added if confusion is likely.
En Francais, I casually give times like “treize heures” or “vingt heures”. I like it, as it cuts down on ambiguity.
I think just about every country I’ve ever been to except USA. Some I can’t remember but Estonia, Sweden, Norway and Finland definately do. I think also England, France, Japan.
America, Mexico, and Canada use 12 hours but I think the majority of countries use 24. Some countries might not have a standard though.
I generally have any digital clocks/watches set to show 24 hr time , but I would always translate into 12 hour when speaking. - And use ‘hh-hundred’ to say it. Anyone saying ‘14 o’clock’ would get very strange looks
Not England. Not Australia or New Zealand or India or well, basically I’ve never been to an English speaking country where civilians used 24 hour time.
In the UK and Ireland we tend to be bilingual, time-wise: we say time with the 12-hour clock (see you at ten, etc.), but timetables etc. are usually written in the 24-hour clock. I also perceive that writing in the 12-hour clock is starting to diminish considerably. The digital part of my watch, my 3 computers, mobile phone, oven, microwave oven, alarm clock, stereo, and VCR, all display 24-hour time notation.
It makes sense.
+1 i agree
when i had a digital watch i was tempted a lot to say fourteen twenty etc
but made the mental adjustment to the 12 hour system
its friendlier
In Sweden the written form is (almost) always the 24 hour form, and I’d say the spoken form is about 50-50, depending on the circumstances. Exact times, such as train departure times, are spoken in the 24 hour form more often than not.
As has already been said, but to clarify because of this misinformed post (don’t mean that harshly - honestly! It’s possible that you mean you never heard 24hr time being used):
England generally does use a 24hr clock but uses 12hr clock speak.
ie. most watches and digital clocks will show ‘14:30’, but we will say ‘half past two’. All the digital watches I’ve ever owned haven given me the option to change between 12hr and 24hr displays, which I assume isn’t an option on watches made for countries that don’t use 24hr times.
Here in Denmark time is written in 24 hour format.
What we say depends, you can just as easily hear someone say * klokken 2 * as * klokken 17 *
Not many outside the millitary add “hundred” though.
// brian
Somewhat off-topic question for British dopers: the last few years or so I’ve been hearing *.30 times expressed in the form “half *” on British television. Instead of saying “half past whatever” they’ll say “half whatever”.
My questions are: 1. Is this common usage now? 2. When you say “half two” in this way, do you mean 14.30 (having lost the word “past” to today’s stressful environment) or 13.30 (meaning that we’re halfway to two)?
As the original post referred specifically to usage in English-speaking countries I cannot comment on the original question.
In German 12-hour times are used colloquially when the time is unambigous (“let’s go to lunch at one o’clock”) but 24-hour times are used when needed (“my shift is eight to sixteen o’clock”)
- Yes, it’s common but informal. 2. “Half two” means “14.30”.
Now can someone tell me what Americans mean by “quarter of”…? That’s always puzzled me considerably.
“Quarter of” means fifteen minutes before the hour, so “quarter of three” = 2:45.
“Quarter of” = “quarter till” = “a quarter (fourth) of an hour until”…
Aha! Now I get it! Ya know, that and the English colloquialism are probably from the same root.