Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

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I hear phrases like "half-past", "quarter til", and "quarter after" way less often since digital clocks have became more commonplace. (midwest.social)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/showerthoughts

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Since using AM and PM are essentially analogue standards, will people eventually stop saying "it's two o'clock" when they mean "the time is fourteen hundred"?

[–] A_Random_Idiot 6 points 9 months ago (2 children)

i dont know if you are joking or not, but i have all my clocks unironically on 24 hour time.

[–] cashews_best_nut 9 points 9 months ago

So does a lot of the world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In real life though, when the clock reads 15:00, how do you vocally express that?

[–] A_Random_Idiot 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"Its fiften-hundred"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Interesting.

I know people who prefer 24 hour clocks but use am/pm when expressing vocally.

[–] A_Random_Idiot 1 points 9 months ago

I mean, if someone is asking me the time, I'll tell them 3 o'clock.

but you asked how i vocally express 15:00. Not how I would tell it to an average person :p

I'm not so up my ass that I think everyone uses 24 hour clocks, afterall lol

[–] Epilepsiavieroitus 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Talking about hundreds is American military slang/jargon isn't it? I've never heard it elsewhere and it doesn't even make sense. It's fourteen hours, not hundreds. If we're going that way, I think it'll be "twenty past fourteen" and such.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Well, you could say "fourteen twenty" too.

But if "fourteen twenty" was a year we would think its "1420".

Likewise, 1400 is "fourteen hundred" and not "14:00"

Some military standards make a lot of sense, there's no problem adopting it if it's clear.

[–] Epilepsiavieroitus 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

But 14:00 is what the time is and what the clock shows, not 1400. So I would say 14 o'clock if not 2 o'clock. Would you say "it's nine hundred in the morning" too? Again, it's hours not hundreds. I'm sorry but I don't understand why you're talking about years.

For context my country uses 24h time and I grew up with it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It is objectively wrong to say 14 o'clock, because "o'clock" refers to the orientation of an analogue clock.

Saying "it's nine in the morning" is redundant in a 24 hour system, because nine would never be anything other than that.

To say 'it's nine hundred" reduces the ambiguity slightly (because you can't really say o'clock).

If you simply say "it's nine" then other people might ask "what's nine?"

Is it "nine past nine"? Or are you telling me "no" in German?

Nine hundred is pretty clear, but not to our primitive ears