How to tell military time chart

military time chart: A Guide to Understanding and Telling 24-Hour Time

If you work in the military, or in any other setting where telling time is primarily based on 24-hour format, then understanding a military time chart is essential. Here's a brief guide on how to tell military time.

What is Military Time?

Military time utilizes 24-hour clock instead of the 12-hour format that most Americans are used to. All hours are counted from zero up until twenty-three, with the first hour beginning immediately after midnight (12:00 AM). Hours leading all the way up to 11 PM are typically written using the traditional suffix, such as "am" or "pm" which come before the hour and minute divisions. However, for accuracy, military personnel use a unique system of 24-hour clock that represents each hour by two digits.

How to Tell Time Using Military Time Chart

If you look at a military time chart you will see that hours one through twelve are listed with their traditional am & pm suffixes (e.g., 12:00 am – 12:59am; 1:00am – 1:59am). For hours thirteen through twenty-four however, these numbers are preceded by 0 and usually followed by an apostrophe (e.g., 00'00 - 00'59; 13'00 – 13'59 etc.). In this system minutes remain constant using the same 00 - 59 divisions of conventional time keeping formats.

Let's look at some quick examples for military time conversions so that you can become comfortable with this new format:

1 am = 01'00 2 pm = 14'00 5 am = 05'00 9 pm = 21'00 3 pm = 15'00 11 pm = 23'00

Other Considerations When Telling Military Time

Another important part of telling military time is understanding minutes divisions and ensuring clarity when telling both full hours and times split between two different hours. In order to ensure accuracy when telling times just after an entire hour has passed, you must always mention both halves of an hour when giving a specific time (e.g., if it is 4:42 am then you would say "0 four forty two" instead of simply "four forty two"). Whenever possible it's also important to specify whether minutes mentioned after a full hour refer to times from the previous half or from the next (e.g., if it's 4:42 am in 10 minutes it would be 4 fifty two and not 5 four).

What You Need To Know About Military Time Chart