Time in English pm am. How to find out the time in English using am and pm
The change of day and night naturally divides the day into two parts. And this significant difference between the time of day was reflected even in the language. We say "at two o'clock in the afternoon" or "at two o'clock in the morning" to emphasize whether the action took place during the day or at night. And there are two more wonderful words in Russian for this purpose: “afternoon” and “midnight”.
In ancient times, time was determined differently day and night. During the day, if the sun was shining, then according to the sundial. And at night - by sand or water clocks, measuring the amount of expired sand or water. Who needed to measure time at night? Guards and stargazers. The shepherds did without watches, determining the time by the stars. Later, when navigation appeared, knowing the exact time became a guarantee that the ship would not get lost at sea, losing sight of the coast. Therefore, on the ship, one of the important watch posts was at the hourglass. The sailor watched the stream of sand and turned the hourglass over when the sand finally poured from the top of the bottle to the bottom. What he immediately signaled, for example, by striking a bell. Usually the “factory” of the hourglass was enough for a quarter of an hour, so the bell on the ship rang every fifteen minutes. This was called "beating the flasks."
As you can see, there was "day" time and "night" time. When, already in the Middle Ages, tower clocks appeared in cities, their dial was divided into 12 sectors, because they were actually “daytime”, at night, in the darkness, the dial could not be seen. And if on the tower clock the arrow pointed to the number "7", people themselves were unmistakably oriented, either it was time to open a shop, or the working day had already ended. Pretty soon, chimes were invented, clocks in which time could not only be seen on the dial, but also heard by the corresponding number of bell strikes.
For many cities, the clock has become one of the attractions. The clock mechanism was forced not only to ring the bells, but also to show whole puppet shows. If the clock was high on the tower, then the dolls were made huge so that you could see them from below. Sometimes, on the contrary, the clock was lowered lower. Every hour people gathered to them to stare at the moralizing mechanical mystery. Probably the most famous clock of this type is the clock on the Town Hall Square in Prague.
The dial of this watch, by the way, is divided into 24 sectors. They show not only "day" time, but also "night" time too. Also day and month.
The two systems of calculating the time of day that had developed in this way seemed to cohabit on the same territory. AT oral speech a twelve-hour system was preferred, with the addition, if necessary, of indicating the time of day. Moreover, the watches that appeared in personal use, pocket and wrist, usually had a dial divided into 12 sectors. In writing, that is, mainly in orders and directives, the twenty-four hour system was preferred. This made it possible to avoid ambiguity, which was especially important in military affairs. Bringing a regiment to the river and crossing to the other side at four o'clock in the afternoon or at four o'clock in the morning are completely different things, aren't they? In the United States and Canada, the twenty-four-hour system for representing the time of day is called “military” or “astronomical”.
In everyday life in these countries, the twelve-hour system is practically the standard. In this system, the hour of the day is indicated by a number from 1 to 12 with the addition of two letters, AM or PM. These letters are an abbreviation of the Latin words "ante meridiem" ("before noon") and "post meridiem" ("afternoon").
Usually, the question arises as to how noon and midnight are designated in the twelve-hour system. The convention is that 12:00AM is noon and 12:00PM is midnight. Therefore, the minutes of the first hour after noon in the twelve-hour record are designated as follows: 12:15AM. This corresponds to 12:15 in the twenty-four hour record. The time of the first hour after midnight is 12:30PM. This corresponds to 0:30 in a twenty-four hour recording. That is, there is no zero in the twelve-hour time system. Its role is played by the number 12.
September 30, 2017 No comments
Let's learn how to understand and determine the time in English language am and pm are correct. Many countries use the 12-hour version of the day in their designations. And in the CIS countries it is used for 24 hours, that is, 17-18 hours and so on.
In Australia, USA, Canada, the 12-hour designation is used. It is more convenient for them in colloquial speech. And it also correlates with the 12 hour dial.
So, how does AM and PM stand for? It's simple: AM from Latin is pronounced as "ante meridiem" - before noon 00:00 - 12:00, PM - "post meridiem" - after noon 12:00 - 00:00. Or in other words, AM is all night after midnight and morning until noon, but PM is the time from noon to midnight (all day after noon and all evening until midnight).
Now let's take a look at some examples:
12 a. m. - midnight
12 p.m. m. - noon
5 a. m. - 5 am
5 p. m. 5 am
We say simply - twenty minutes to eight, in English they also say so: 03:20 - Three twenty (three twenty), 04:55 - Four fifty-five (four fifty-five).
If you want to say the exact time without minutes, then say this: 12:00 - Twelve o'clock (twelve hours), that is, the word o'clock is added.
Note that the word o'clock can be used to indicate time with the words morning, evening, night, for example, in the morning or in the evening. Example:
I'll be here only at 9 p.m. I won't be here until 9pm.
I'll be here only at nine o'clock. Or: I'll be here only at 8.00 o'clock in the morning.
The construction of the sentence occurs with the formal subject it, because in sentences it must be in English. Examples:
It is (or It's) three twenty-five AM. - It's three twenty-five in the morning.
It is eight thirty PM. - It's eight thirty in the evening.
Our people sometimes say "eighteen o'clock" which means 6 pm. And in America, such designations are used by the military or technicians, because accuracy is important to them. These designations are also called military time - military time. Consider one interesting note - if you want to say 18:00, eighteen hundred or literally "eighteen hundred" would be more correct.
Time with 30 minutes can be said so with the use half past or "half after":
It is half past seven - now half past eight.
If you need to say "it's 3:15 now", then it's easier to do it like this with phrases a quarter past- a quarter after or a quarter to- quarter to. A quarter is 60 divided by 4 and we get exactly 15. Example:
It's a quarter past eight. - It's a quarter past nine. Literally, it will be like this: it is now a quarter after eight.
It's a quarter to nine. - It's a quarter to nine.
Other time options are also indicated with to and past. Example: It is ten past eight a.m. It's 8:10 am now. It's twenty-five to seven p.m. “It's twenty-five to seven now.
Also take a test to consolidate the material
You might be interested:
Our life is a cycle. An endless cycle of changing days (at least as long as our planet exists). Everyone knows that every day is divided into several parts - Morning, Day, Evening and Night. Each of them is limited to certain time periods. What time does morning start? Answer: Morning is the part of the day that starts at 6 o'clock in the morning and ends at noon - 12 o'clock.
We all love to listen to music loudly, have a party, or drill a couple of holes in the walls with our favorite hammer drill. But do not forget about the comfort of your neighbors. They will not always be happy to appreciate the power of your acoustics or endure the whine of a drill until 6 in the morning. So, from what time and until how much you can not make noise? The law takes care of the peace of the citizens of our country and provides for a "period of silence", which begins at 23.00 ...
Finally, that long-awaited (or alarming) day has come when you have every good reason to believe that you are pregnant. It may be a long absence of menstruation or just a woman's intuition - it doesn't matter. In any case, you need to run to the pharmacy for a pregnancy test. But then a logical question arises - when is it better to do a pregnancy test, how many days after the intended conception will the test detect pregnancy as reliably as possible? If a…
Nowadays, 3G phones are becoming more and more popular. And this is not surprising, because for a modern person, high-speed, convenient and high-quality communication is very important. Moreover, such a connection should always be at hand, in your pocket. However, few people imagine the principles of functioning of 3G technology. 3G is still a very young data transmission technology that uses 2 communication standards. This is CDMA (Code Division Multiple…
We in Russia, Ukraine and many other countries are used to the fact that there are 24 hours in one day. However, there are places where this is not the case. No, they are not on another planet that rotates faster or slower than the Earth. The fact is that they consider time in a different format.
Many have seen the abbreviations AM and PM, but few people thought about what they mean. Below we will just figure out what AM and PM are and why.
AM PM - time
AM and PM are abbreviations that stand for the following:
- AM- Ante Meridiem (in translation - before noon);
- PM– Post Meridiem (“ Afternoon«).
Thus, the day is divided into two parts - equal to 12 hours.
As you can see, everything is very simple. The only difficulty lies in adapting to the appropriate format. Usually, people who come, for example, to the United States or Australia, at first get very confused when they try to find out the time not by their watches.
Where the AM and PM system is used
The corresponding time system is used to varying degrees in many countries. However, it is most prevalent in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.
Partially it is applied in Ireland, France and Greece. But the list is not limited to this. There are more than a hundred countries where the division of the day according to the AM and PM system is used in informal communication, despite the officially adopted 24-hour system.
It should be noted that Russia also belongs to these countries. Here many say, for example: 3 hours (meaning day) or 2 hours (meaning night). On the other hand, in this case, not exactly the AM / PM system is used, but the designation by time of day (example: 8 pm instead of 8 pm), but the essence does not change.
Problems that arise due to differences in time systems
The calculation of time is regulated by the ISO 8601 standard. However, despite this, in different parts of the world there are several decisions on how to designate midnight and noon. The result is confusion.
The fact is that Meridiem in English, it literally translates as "noon" or "midday", which makes it linguistically impossible to accurately attribute exactly 12 noon and 12 noon to PM or AM (they can be either the first or the second). In view of this, in some countries exactly midnight can be denoted as both PM and AM (the same applies to noon). Despite the fact that such mistakes are largely characteristic of informal communication, they can also affect the conduct of business. For example, a trader may say that he will close the trade at 12.00PM, when in fact he meant 00.00 in the 24-hour system.
