Twenty-four hours is not only used by the military, but is standard practice in many countries outside North America. However, because it is rarely used outside the North American military, twenty-four hours has become known as "military time." If you want to know how to read military time, just follow these easy steps.
Step
Step 1. Understand military time
Military time begins at midnight, known as 0000 hours. This is called “Zero Hundred Hours.” In contrast to a time that starts at the beginning twice, in military time, you use a time that starts at 0000 at midnight and goes on for 2359 hours (1159 p.m.) until it starts again at 0000 hours at midnight again. Note that military time does not use a colon to separate hours and minutes.
- For example, if 1 a.m. is 0100 hours, 1 p.m. is 1300 hours.
- Contrary to popular belief, the military does not mention 2400 hours of midnight, or "Two Thousand Four Hundred Hours."
Step 2. Learn how to write the hours from midnight to noon in military time
To find out how to write the hours from midnight to noon military time, you simply add a zero before the hour and two zeros after it. 1 a.m. is 0100 hours, 2 a.m. is 0200 hours, 3 a.m. is 0300 hours, and so on. When you reach the two-digit number, 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., just write 1000 hours for 11 a.m. and 1100 hours for 11 a.m. Here are a few more examples:
- 4 a.m. is 0400 hours.
- 5 a.m. is 0500 hours.
- 6 a.m. is 0600 hours.
- 7 a.m. is 0700 hours.
- 8 a.m. is 0800 hours.
Step 3. Learn how to write the hours from midday to evening in military time
Things can get a little more challenging as the time goes up from midday to late at night. In military time, you don't start a new twelve hour cycle after noon, but you continue to count above 1200. Therefore, 1 p.m. to 1300 hours, 2 p.m. to 1400 hours, 3 p.m. to 1500 hours, and so on. This continued until midnight, when the time started all over again. Here are some examples:
- 4 p.m. is 1600 hours.
- 5 p.m. is 1700 hours.
- 6 p.m. is 1800 hours.
- 10 p.m. is 2200 hours.
- 11 p.m. is 2300 hours.
Step 4. Learn how to say hours in military time
If you're facing an entire hour without minutes, it's easy to say it out loud. If there is a zero as the first digit, then say the first two digits as “Zero” and any number that follows, followed by “Hundred Hours.” If there is a 1 or 2 as the first digit, then say the first two digits as a number pair with the tens and ones digits, followed by "Hundred Hours." Here are some examples:
- 0100 hours is "Zero Hundred Hours."
- 0200 hours is "Zero Two Hundred Hours."
- 0300 hours is "Zero Three Hundred Hours."
- 1100 hours is "One Thousand One Hundred Hours."
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2300 hours is "Two Thousand Three Hundred Hours."
- Keep in mind that in the military, “zero” is always used to denote a zero in front of a number. "Empty" is used in more relaxed situations.
- Remember that using "clock" is not mandatory.
Step 5. Learn how to say hours and minutes in military time
Saying time in military terms is a little more difficult when you're dealing with hours and minutes, but you can get used to it quickly. When you say military time, you must say the 4-digit number as two pairs of numbers with tens and ones digits. For example, 1545 becomes "Fifteen Forty-Five Hours." Here are some rules for the process:
- If there is one or more zeros in front of the number, they are called. 0003 is "Zero Zero Zero Three Hours" and 0215 is "Zero Twenty Fifteen Hours."
- If there are no zeros in the first two digits of the number, then just treat the first two numbers as a unit with the tens and ones digits, and do the same with the last two digits. 1234 became "Twelve Thirty-Four Hours" and 1444 became "Fourteen Forty-Four Hours."
- If the last digit is zero, think of it as a single unit with the tens digit to its left. Hence, 0130 is "Zero One Thirty."
Step 6. Learn to change from military time to regular time
Once you know how to write and say military time, you can become good at changing from military time to regular time. If you see a number greater than 1200, it means you've hit the afternoon hours, so just subtract 1200 from that number to get the time in 12 hours. For example, 1400 hours is 2 p.m. in standard time, because you get 200 when you subtract 1200 from 1400. 2000 hours is 8 p.m. because when you subtract 1200 from 2000, you get 800.
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If you find out the time is less than 1200, then you know you are using numbers from midnight to noon. Just use the first two digits to get the morning time, and the last two digits to get the minutes to convert to military time.
For example, 0950 hours means 9 hours 50 minutes, or 9:50 a.m. 1130 hours means 11 hours 30 minutes, or 11:30 a.m
Here is the military time table
Tips
- The more you practice reading military time, the easier it will become.
- You can subtract 12 from 12 or anything higher to find the actual time in standard time. Example: 21:00 – 12 = 9:00 PM
