When people talk they speak in the 12 hour clock, but written communication is in 24hr
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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(in German) Both formats are commonly used in both cases.
Can confirm this is the case in Spain, always spoken as the 12hr equivalent but written in 24hr
It varies very much from country to country. In some it is perfectly fine to say "meet you at 19 o'clock" or similar.
Wait till you hear how Japan does things. If something closes at 1a or 2a, quite often the signage says 2500 or 2600 instead of 0100 or 0200 to denote that it’s a holdover from the previous day.
Japanese work culture. If you're not working 26 hours per day, you're a slacker.
Homer shriek
Back in the day I used this hack the first time I implemented a scheduling system. Made the math a ton easier.
Wait, but then what time does it roll over into the new day at? Does it go 29:00 -> 06:00?
It’s not an “official” thing and usually rolls over based on the business.
So let’s say one business opens at 10a and closes at 4a every day, they’ll say 10:00-28:00
But let’s say a different company opens at 3a and closes at 10p, they’ll say 03:00-22:00
You’ll notice that there isn’t an “official” reset of time, it’s only used when a business carries over past midnight till whenever they close the next day. You don’t really find anything going past about 4a though.
Oh I see
It depends. You might say something like "I've got a meeting from 12 to 14", which is perfectly natural. But also a lot of the time you might just say "I go to bed at 9" because the context makes it obvious that you mean 9 in the evening. Most people don't go to bed in the morning. Unless you do, but then you would probably give context "I'm going to bed at 9 in the morning, because I work nights", for example.
As far as I know, no one ever says "I sleep at 2100 hrs (twenty-one hundred hours)". We say "I sleep at 9 o'clock" or "at 21 o'clock"). Then of course change o'clock with your lagnuage's equivalent such as "uur" or "Uhr" in Dutch and German for example. Pm or am is almost always derived from context, and if it's not you can add "in the morning/afternoon/evening".
As far as I know, no one ever says "I sleep at 2100 hrs (twenty-one hundred hours)".
Germans most definitely do
Oh wow I didn't know that. Is it common? I've never heard it ever outside of the context of American military time.
yes it's common. To give you an idea, the biggest news program on public TV uses that format to give a preview of what comes later that evening: https://youtu.be/sAAlQmlmFJU?t=920
google translates "zweiundzwanzig Uhr fünfzehn" to "10:15 pm" but what she says is 22 "hour" 15
Instead of 9pm I would say 21 o'clock (or in German 21 Uhr), if it is obvious I'm talking about the evening, I might also say 9 o'clock (9 Uhr)
Depends. Some people will say "21 Uhr", some people will say "9 Uhr", one isn't more formal than the other.
Of course with the 12h format you always need additional context to know if you mean in the moring or in the evening, since we don't use "am/pm".
I always prefer 24 uhr ;) format and usually set my devices to it, but I feel it is too formal to tell a friend, "hey, I will call you at 1700 hours"
Yeah, I've had a couple of Americans ask me why I use "military time", which was confusing at first. But at least in German it's totally normal.
For me, it depends. 1700 Hours is definitely weird and military in my experience. But 17:00 isn't. The difference is how you write and say it. The first reads as 17 hundred hours, while the other is 17 o'clock.
24 uhr
That's actually not a thing. It goes from 23:59 to 00:00
And when you'd say it it would be "23 Uhr 59" to "0 Uhr".
I meant to say 24 hour format there
The French say "14 heur". It's no biggie.
I read it as 14 removed and idk what the french say, imma pronounce it that way.
Context makes it obvious. On the rare occations when it doesn't, I usually add "in the evening" or "in the morning"
In text Comms I use the 24h format but since I was a kid I learned to read the 24h in 12h format. I mean if I check the clock and it's 18:00 I won't think "it's 18 o'clock" but "it's 6 o'clock"
If you really want to have fun with spoken German time formats, you have to get into the quarters though.
For example:
8:15 / 20:15 can be said as Viertel nach Acht (quarter past eight) or Viertel Neun (quarter nine)
8:45 / 20:45 can be said as Viertel vor Neun (quarter before nine) or Dreiviertel Neun (three quarters nine)
And I think the difference in those is regional, so those are actually more "controversial" then using 12 or 24h formats.
As a native English speaker that used to be able to speak decent German, the one that really screwed with me was 30 minutes past/to the hour. In British English (apparently, an American girlfriend found this confusing when I said it), you can just say "half eight" and everyone knows you mean half past eight. In German, "halb acht" would be 7:30, because it's assumed to be half to instead of past. Neither is more reasonable than the other, but it definitely took me a while to get over the instinctual understanding of it. I was very late to at least one lunch
As an American, the first time I heard this usage by a British person, I assumed it meant half an hour before the hour (7:30, in your example).