this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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No Stupid Questions

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Why is it that Americans refer to 24 hour time as military time? I understand that the military uses the 24hr format but I don’t understand why the general public would refer to it like that?

It makes it seem like it’s a foreign concept where as in a lot of countries it’s the norm.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Related question. Do 24 hour clock folks say fourteen o'clock if they're talking about 2pm?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I'm german. if it's completely unambiguous, we simply say "dinner is at 6" or "my shift ends at 4". but when you want to make sure that there's no room for confusion we say "let's meet at 21 o'clock".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm Dutch. Usually we just say something like "2 in the afternoon" instead of 14:00 or 2 PM. But digital clocks and writing etc will use 24 hours. Every now and then people will use it though, saying 14:30 as "fourteen hours thirty", but that's quite rare and sounds a bit formal (or goofy).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

In France, people commonly use the 24h format. Any time given in a formal setting (given on TV, opening hours for a business, etc.) will be in 24h format. Some people still use 12h though.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In French, it's pretty common to say 14 o'clock.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

La fête est à quatorze heures.

Which is French for "I expect you'll show up some time between 15:00 and 19:00."

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

In my country younger individuals like me use the 24 hour system a lot verbally. Older generations from before smartphones (which always use 24 hour) uses the 12 hour system more.

But in general I would argue that people use the 24 hour system when talking about something which needs precision, like when the train arrives. And the 12 hour system when talking about something like when to meet a friend (it's still very important to arrive on time though, regardless of how imprecise the time was, "about five" means five.)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I'm a nurse who uses 24-hr time at work and it's about 50/50 with me saying "fourteen hundred" or "2pm" when speaking. I generally find that my colleagues understand both and use both interchangeably.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They say fourteen hundred or 2 o'clock. I've never really heard anyone say 14 o'clock.

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

We definitely just called it 14 where I grew up

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

We called it 14 in Alabama. You're talking about age of censent, right?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

In both Polish and German people say fourteen o’clock.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking ~~thirteen~~ fourteen"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In Denmark we say "2 o'clock" or just "14", sometimes also "14 o'clock". No one says fourteen hundred, except perhaps for a few military wannabes.

If it's quarter past 2, we'd usually say "14-15". Half past 2 would be "14-30", you get the idea.

If we mean to say "from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock", we'll say "14 to 15", which I imagine can be confusing for the uninitiated, as the only difference from "quarter past 2" would be a "to".

For those downvoting me, what do you say? I imagine it must be other Danes or neighboring countries, as one surely wouldn't downvote a culturally dependant statement if not from said culture.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Same in Norway, unsurprisingly, but we do say 14 0 0 (fjorten null null) if making it clear that we mean 1400 exact. Otherwise like you said, klokken 14 or klokken 2.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I basically always write the time as a four-figure number, and verbally refer to 1400 as "two o'clock", "two in the afternoon" etc. in English but "viertien uur" or "twee uur" in Dutch.

Edit: I used to work in a train station in the UK, and we'd always say train times as (one- or two-figure number)(0 like "o" if it's there)(one- or two-figure number). So 1400 is fourteen-o-o, 1407 is fourteen-o-seven, 1412 is fourteen twelve, 0502 is five-o-two. Among staff, we'd refer to them just by the minutes, so the o-two, the seventeen, the forty-eight, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

1400 (fourteen hundred)