# Do people use 24 hour times in conversation where you live?



## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

I live in the Netherlands.
Public transport timetables are in 24 hour notation, TV guides are in 24 hour time,
however people hardly ever use 24 hour time designations when they talk to each other.

The Dutch aren't terribly chauvinistic when it comes to entertainment so TV and cinemas are replete with 'foreign' language productions which don't normally get dubbed into Dutch but have the original dialogue kept intact with subtitles superimposed.
I recently watched a French police series on TV and noticed that the cast used 24 hour times when making appointments.
"We'll meet for dinner at 20 hours" for example.

Is this common throughout France? Do you do that in your country/language?


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## [BOBO] (May 12, 2020)

I live in Sweden.
When talking amongst friends, we use 1-12, because somehow, it's obvious if we're talking about day or night. We don't use AM/PM, but use 24h to make it clear what we mean if it's not clear by context.
Dinner is always in the 17-21 range, so nobody will show up at 7 AM even if you just say "let's meat at 7 for dinner"...

But in text, we always use 1-24. And all public announcements and such are in 24h time.
Time tables, opening hours, work time, all in 24h.

We never dubbed TV or movies, and the subtitles are translated from AM/PM to 24h time.
So, if someone says "let's meet at 8PM", it would be translated to "vi ses 20.00".


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## bassov (Feb 16, 2021)

peagreen said:


> Is this common throughout France?


Yep ! At least most of the time. 
I personally find it more convenient - it isn't more difficult to use and it avoids any ambiguity.


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## Seabee1 (Apr 21, 2017)

Can't tell you the number of times friends said, 'we're having drinks at 4, come by' and there I was, knocking on their door at 4 in the morning. They seemed upset for some reason


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## [BOBO] (May 12, 2020)

Seabee1 said:


> Can't tell you the number of times friends said, 'we're having drinks at 4, come by' and there I was, knocking on their door at 4 in the morning. They seemed upset for some reason


The plane leaves at 8. Be there.


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## TechGuyJ (Dec 4, 2014)

I live in the US, where 24h time is not common at all. Most Americans use 12h with AM/PM, both verbally and written. Most schedules (work, movies, etc) are also in 12h. The exception is a few professions that require no ambiguity - military, medical, and the like. I spent 12 years in the US military and am used to using 24h time for everything. I make my kids learn it and we use it both written and in conversation around the house. I also use 24h time in my business. But I am the exception here. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## oprhodium39 (Apr 12, 2020)

If clear from the context we use 1-12, but sometimes people will use 0-24 as well, in writing almost always 0-24.
(Note: I always confused about AM/PM for midnight/noon - for me midnight is always 0:00 and 12:00 always means noon.)
0-24 (actually 00:00:00-23:59:59 😀) is simply more logical to me, first thing on digital clocks (watch, car, phone, etc.) to switch into 24h display mode.


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## orpheo (Jun 6, 2010)

peagreen said:


> I live in the Netherlands.
> Public transport timetables are in 24 hour notation, TV guides are in 24 hour time,
> however people hardly ever use 24 hour time designations when they talk to each other.
> 
> ...


I'm also Dutch by my friends and family absolutely do use 24-hour time in regular speech and writing.


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## ClearlyJammed (Jul 26, 2021)

Only if they’re military


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## kritameth (Oct 11, 2015)

Here in New England, no.


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## alex_b (Jul 16, 2013)

In England I’ve never head 24hr time spoken outside of transport, military or when I used to beach lifeguard. I see it written occasionally in work situations or when it has been copied/pasted in from elsewhere. Anyone saying “I’ll meet you for dinner at twenty thirty” would sound very odd.


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## dglessner (Oct 22, 2013)

Nope, not so much hear in the US. Unless you are some sort of spy or other operative. Then you will use what we all seem to call "military time"


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## Pongster (Jan 7, 2017)

Philippines. 12 hour system here. Except for the military and aviation.


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## Watchbreath (Feb 12, 2006)

Wife gets lost after 13:00.


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## lobefin (Feb 18, 2017)

In Canada - I use 24h time because I use French.


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## B.Kohr (Mar 31, 2021)

We use 24 time in writing, at work, as different teams operate on different schedules. I suspect many companies do something similar. 

Frankly, I think with everyone starting to work from home more, etc more companies may switch to using GMT to schedule meetings, calls, etc.


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## Seabee1 (Apr 21, 2017)

What about using metric time


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## MissileExpert (Mar 18, 2018)

ClearlyJammed said:


> Only if they’re military


I spent 11 years active duty in the Army. We mostly used 12 hour jargon when talking, but if we were referring to a military operation, it would be, "Time on Target is Fourteen Hundred Hours Local." Schedules and such were noted in 24 hour time. In military jargon, you would need to distinguish between "Zulu" time (UTC) or "Local" time. The latter was only used if the operations only covered one time zone and did not require any cooperation with organizations outside the local time zone.


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## Wilfried84 (May 19, 2020)

I was a student in Germany many years ago, and 24 hour time was quite common. It's perfectly normal to say "16 Uhr" to mean 4pm. These days I'm not used to it at all, and I have to translate in my head. I have my G-Shock set to 24 hour time, just for kicks.


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## Grasshopperglock (Jul 31, 2021)

I live near Fort Hood, Texas. 

80% of the town knows and uses the 24. To include the state wide civilian law enforcement and other emergency services. It's more common then you'd think.


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## ThomasCo (Jan 27, 2021)

peagreen said:


> Is this common throughout France?


Mostly yes, but spoken language would also use the 12-hour format with the mention "morning/evening". We would say something like "11 in the evening" rather than "23 hours" for example.

For formal stuff like appointments, meetings, etc, we use the 24-hour format.

(FYI, despite my Canadian flag, I'm French from France 😋)


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## mcmikey (Oct 25, 2014)

I used to work on a railway and we always used 24hr time and I do when filling in paperwork in my current job, but not so much outside of work.


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## [BOBO] (May 12, 2020)

ThomasCo said:


> Mostly yes, but spoken language would also use the 12-hour format with the mention "morning/evening". We would say something like "11 in the evening" rather than "23 hours" for example.
> 
> For formal stuff like appointments, meetings, etc, we use the 24-hour format.
> 
> (FYI, despite my Canadian flag, I'm French from France 😋)


I never got why the format changes. The adding of "hour" or in military terms, "hundred hours" instead of just 23 o'clock...


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## OogieBoogie (Oct 3, 2021)

I'm in England right in the middle of several army barracks and a couple of airfields, and I never hear 24hr used.


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## ColonelAngus (Mar 5, 2021)

I work in law enforcement so I only use 24 hour time.

edit to add: I don’t use it like a tool in front of other people that I know don’t think like that. Just in my head it is always 24hr time and my digital watches are set to 24hr clock. When I talk to my wife I don’t say I’ll be home at 1800 hours.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Seabee1 said:


> Can't tell you the number of times friends said, 'we're having drinks at 4, come by' and there I was, knocking on their door at 4 in the morning. They seemed upset for some reason


Where else should you go when you've been kicked out of the bar?
But, joking aside, I was just surprised to hear the 24h times in conversation in that series.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

[BOBO] said:


> I never got why the format changes. The adding of "hour" or in military terms, "hundred hours" instead of just 23 o'clock...


I've come across that in older scifi books by Heinlein and others.


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## K42 (Jun 22, 2009)

I’m familiar with 24-hour time coming from a military background, and current job supporting federal government. I have no problem speaking or writing 24-hr time for work, and it’s typically implied to be local time unless specified. I never use ‘hundred hours’ like saying “zero eight hundred hours.” It sounds silly when you add it to something like 13:30.

Outside of work, I’m all on 1-12 without AM/PM designation.


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## alex_b (Jul 16, 2013)

Grasshopperglock said:


> I live near Fort Hood, Texas.
> 
> 80% of the town knows and uses the 24. To include the state wide civilian law enforcement and other emergency services. It's more common then you'd think.


Do they use it in ‘normal’ conversation like arranging dinner?


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## MissileExpert (Mar 18, 2018)

[BOBO] said:


> I never got why the format changes. The adding of "hour" or in military terms, "hundred hours" instead of just 23 o'clock...


At least in military time, there's no colon between the hours and minutes. So, 6:00 PM would be designated 1800. Read as a number, it's "eighteen hundred."


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## [BOBO] (May 12, 2020)

MissileExpert said:


> At least in military time, there's no colon between the hours and minutes. So, 6:00 PM would be designated 1800. Read as a number, it's "eighteen hundred."


Regardless, just saying 18 seems more reasonable. Or 18 45. 
I think that's how I would say it without thinking about it if I went to 'merca, and then I'd be laughed out of the saloon with my chap's, I bet.😬


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## MissileExpert (Mar 18, 2018)

[BOBO] said:


> Regardless, just saying 18 seems more reasonable. Or 18 45.
> I think that's how I would say it without thinking about it if I went to 'merca, and then I'd be laughed out of the saloon with my chap's, I bet.😬


The "hundred" is only used for XX:00 times. 18:45, even in military notation as 1845, would be pronounced "eighteen forty-five."


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## [BOBO] (May 12, 2020)

MissileExpert said:


> The "hundred" is only used for XX:00 times. 18:45, even in military notation as 1845, would be pronounced "eighteen forty-five."


Ah, got it.


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## imichaelj (Oct 27, 2021)

Interesting


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## watch_checker (May 21, 2021)

I live in Hong Kong and we often use the 24 here~


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## AardnoldArrdvark (Aug 7, 2019)

I've generally used 24h since I was at secondary school (in England). Interesting comments above about the use of ':' between hours and minutes. I've worked in a lot of European countries (Western and Eastern) and have seen 24h times written as - for example - 16H30 instead of 1630 in quite a few places.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

AardnoldArrdvark said:


> I've generally used 24h since I was at secondary school (in England). Interesting comments above about the use of ':' between hours and minutes. I've worked in a lot of European countries (Western and Eastern) and have seen 24h times written as - for example - 16H30 instead of 1630 in quite a few places.


Dontcha just LUV international standards?
It would be a lot easier to interpose a colon if it was available without having to resort to using shift keys or similar, as we can with commas and full stops.


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## ned-ludd (Apr 8, 2017)

ISO 8601 offers two formats for time: the _basic format_ is T[hh][mm][ss] and the _extended format_ is T[hh]:[mm]:[ss]. So if you prefix with 'T' the colon is optional.

I use 24-hour time exclusively for myself - all my clocks and watches are 24-hour - but I will use 12-hour time in communications where I know my audience doesn't readily grok it. My family and friends are getting used to me using 24-hour time, though, so the seed is being sown.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

ned-ludd said:


> ISO 8601 offers two formats for time: the _basic format_ is T[hh][mm][ss] and the _extended format_ is T[hh]:[mm]:[ss]. So if you prefix with 'T' the colon is optional.


Thank you.
I'll try using T[hh][mm][ss] in WhatsApp messages a few times and see how my contacts cope with it.
I fear the worst.



ned-ludd said:


> I use 24-hour time exclusively for myself - all my clocks and watches are 24-hour - but I will use 12-hour time in communications where I know my audience doesn't readily grok it.


I don't suppose watchuseek is the right place to ask readers whether 'grok' is used regularly in conversation where they live.
 



ned-ludd said:


> My family and friends are getting used to me using 24-hour time, though, so the seed is being sown.











Parable of the Sower - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org


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## Marzook1 (Apr 4, 2018)

12h only with regard to AM/PM


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## jlariviere (5 mo ago)

i'm in the US and worked in broadcast for about 8 years and had to keep logs in 24hr time. i got into a habit of using it and didn't get out of it (or want to). i have to manually convert for the people who stare at me with blank expressions when i say things like, "call after 16:00"


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

jlariviere said:


> i'm in the US and worked in broadcast for about 8 years and had to keep logs in 24hr time. i got into a habit of using it and didn't get out of it (or want to). i have to manually convert for the people who stare at me with blank expressions when i say things like, "call after 16:00"


People ask me whether I mean 8 in the morning or 8 in the evening and I tell them "there is no 8 in the evening".


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## Chascomm (Feb 13, 2006)

Anybody here own a Botta Uno 24? How do you say the time?










"It's about a quarter to sixteen."


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Chascomm said:


> Anybody here own a Botta Uno 24? How do you say the time?
> 
> View attachment 16894637
> 
> ...


It's about ⅔ of the way from 12 to 18. Time for a sundowner, regardless of actual sunset. (I mean that in the sense of definition 1 in a British dictionary)
If you wear one of those watches, that's close enough for government work. If you want to calculate solar transit of a TV satellite for aiming your antenna, you need something more granular.


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## ned-ludd (Apr 8, 2017)

On any of my 24h one-handers I round to the nearest ten minutes.


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## x29Saab (Feb 26, 2008)

Washington State and Kentucky, USA. 12 hour time almost exclusively. :-(


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## CasualAsCanBe (5 mo ago)

Seabee1 said:


> What about using metric time


 Actually, we already use “metric time”, as whatever time standards ISO uses is the one we use, basically. Decimal time is probably what you meant.


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## CasualAsCanBe (5 mo ago)

[BOBO] said:


> I never got why the format changes. The adding of "hour" or in military terms, "hundred hours" instead of just 23 o'clock...


Tried to convince my sibling but they’re younger and gave up kind of. weak! . But I use 24-hour time when talking to them and they understand me. I say it like a normal person should, ex.: “We’re going to leave for dinner at seventeen forty-five”.


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## Wasty (Aug 27, 2021)

German here:
If I want to be precise I will use 24h expressions: i.e "The movie starts at 19.30 we need to be there at least 30 minutes earlier"

If I had a night out with my friends and we meet at 22.30 (does'nt happen anymore - I'm too old for that ****)  - the expression would have been: "We meet at half eleven" - and everyone would have known what was meant.


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## CasualAsCanBe (5 mo ago)

Wasty said:


> German here:
> If I want to be precise I will use 24h expressions: i.e "The movie starts at 19.30 we need to be there at least 30 minutes earlier"
> 
> If I had a night out with my friends and we meet at 22.30 (does'nt happen anymore - I'm too old for that ****)  - the expression would have been: "We meet at half eleven" - and everyone would have known what was meant.


Is it strange if a perso chooses to only use 24hr in speech or does it not matter and is seen as a preference?


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## IT66 (28 d ago)

In Russia we usually use 24-hour time in official documents or in official speaking anywhere, in timetables, at airports, at train stations, etc. We write time with a colon, for example, 18:45, and say "eighteen forty-five" or 19:00 - "nineteen o'clock" or " nineteen zero zero".
In ordinary communication, we use 12 hour time, for example: "at six o'clock", "at fifteen minutes to eight", "ten minutes past ten". Often speak simply "at six", "at five"...
If you need to specify the time of day, then we say at "seven of the evening" or "at seven of the morning" or "at three of the night.


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## Wasty (Aug 27, 2021)

CasualAsCanBe said:


> Is it strange if a perso chooses to only use 24hr in speech or does it not matter and is seen as a preference?


It's mostly preference and also dialect driven - If someone talks with a heavy bavarian or swabian dialect they will use 12hr in speech. 
My Grandma was saying "Viertelfünfe" literally translated to quarterfive --> 4.15 - and the context determined if she meant AM or PM.

If you go to the more northern parts of Germany, people tend to speak more "High German" and will most likely talk in 24hr.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Seabee1 said:


> What about using metric time


I can't buy or measure time by the metre. What do you mean?


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## Barnaby'sDad (Feb 12, 2019)

It’s common everywhere except the US. The exception for the US being military peeps and whatever other professions that utilize it. 

We’re in Germany now. Our friends have their car dash set for 24hr time. My wife saw it and was like “look…they have their time set like yours.”


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## SkyMustang (Jun 17, 2021)

England here. The original one. Not the new one. Ok, the one in the UK.
12 hour time. The whole hog. Except at work where we used a combination of 12 hour time or UTC.

Observation: people get really baffled about midnight and noon. Many think that 12pm is midnight so to avoid them taking things offensively, I never say 12am or 12pm. Instead, always say 12 in the afternoon, or 12 at night. I’ve never needed to do that during normal conversation but even at work where I thoughtpeople would know better, I felt it’s better to not say am or pm when referring to 12:00.


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## SkyMustang (Jun 17, 2021)

Oh and btw, my digital watch is also set to 24h time because I sometimes cannot see the tiny little p to signify pm.


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## Seabee1 (Apr 21, 2017)

peagreen said:


> I can't buy or measure time by the metre. What do you mean?





CasualAsCanBe said:


> Actually, we already use “metric time”, as whatever time standards ISO uses is the one we use, basically. Decimal time is probably what you meant.


actually I meant it as a joke...which no one seems to have understood. must be because they are used to metric humor


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Barnaby'sDad said:


> It’s common everywhere except the US. The exception for the US being military peeps and whatever other professions that utilize it.
> 
> We’re in Germany now. Our friends have their car dash set for 24hr time. My wife saw it and was like “look…they have their time set like yours.”


The title of the thread mentions "in conversation". Several of the replies have said it _isn't_ common. 
Likewise in Germany, I believe people tend to use 12 hr expressions even during the second half of the day.


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## Barnaby'sDad (Feb 12, 2019)

peagreen said:


> The title of the thread mentions "in conversation". Several of the replies have said it _isn't_ common.
> Likewise in Germany, I believe people tend to use 12 hr expressions even during the second half of the day.


Staying with friends in Germany (German peeps). They referenced “twenty” last night for 8:00 PM.


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## dbonddental (Feb 15, 2011)

I do....when I am giving appointments in my practice, so there are no misunderstendings.


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## peagreen (May 11, 2006)

Barnaby'sDad said:


> Staying with friends in Germany (German peeps). They referenced “twenty” last night for 8:00 PM.


I apologise. I haven't been there for a few years. Things appear to have changed for the better. Progress of this kind is good (IMO).


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## Ftumch (Sep 18, 2017)

I wish. It’s standard in hospitals where I work, but referencing 24h time in Australia mostly causes confusion.

_Wait is 1600 6pm? I don’t know army time._


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