Monday, March 13, 2006

24-hour clock Pronunciations

I always wonder how to say certain times in 24-hour format. Thanks Wikipedia.

The 24-hour clock in spoken English

The time 18:30 is usually pronounced "eighteen thirty". In U.S. military usage, this is often followed by the word "hours", to clarify that the speaker is referring to a time of day. Conventions differ slightly for full hours, but both "eighteen o'clock" and "eighteen hundred" are commonly encountered spoken English for 18:00, with "eighteen hundred hours" being the standard U.S. military usage. The time 18:05 is commonly pronounced either "eighteen oh five" or "five past eighteen". In U.S. military usage, a leading zero for the hours before 10:00 is pronounced as well, as in "oh three oh five hours" for 03:05, but this would be considered unusual in a civilian setting.

Taking as an example, the United Kingdom's Birmingham New Street Station, the public announcement system refers to 24-hour times as: 06:59 "oh six fifty-nine", to 07:00 "oh seven hundred hours". What is used for 00:00 is unknown, as trains virtually never leave at midnight. On the display boards at Birmingham New Street, mirroring the majority of stations in the UK, and timetables, the time is written as HHMM, as in 0659 or 0700 for 'one minute to-' and 'seven o'clock' respectively.

In common with what happens with units, the written and spoken forms of time do not always match. For example, it is possible for a train time to be written as "18:30" but a person may say "there is a train at half-past".

1 comment:

Ariel said...

Thanks.
I suppose I'll call 00:00 'midnight', then.

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