7 am time. How to find out time in English using am and pm symbols

Time: 24 hour and 12 hour. If everything is clear with the distribution of digital indicators in the first case, then the second one is more complex topic. As you know, AM-PM time is a code adopted primarily in America. But few people know that a similar system for calculating hours is also used in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines. Therefore, let’s consider what it is so that there is no confusion in the future.

Difficulties of simple school topics

Surely all children who study English at school are faced with these codes - AM-PM. Time in this case is calculated in numbers from 0 to 12, no more. That is, the first stage takes place before noon, and the second begins after 12 noon, when next hour is already again referred to as the number 1. In order to avoid confusion, the terms AM-PM were introduced. The time in the first half of the day is designated by the first of them, which in Latin means “before noon,” and the hours that come after are designated by the second code.

Fun facts and coincidences

Many children, when studying this topic at school, begin to get confused about these terms. In order for the child to better understand this information, you need to provide him with a simpler analogue of the interpretation of the 12-hour time calculation. Think carefully, because in our country this system also works at 50%. More often, when making an appointment in the afternoon, we say “at 9 pm,” although according to the 24-hour system this would be 21 hours.

Teach children in simple terms

Also, the child will better navigate American system time according to a standard wall clock. They do not contain numbers with an equivalent of more than 12. Therefore, AM-PM time is a system that is much more acceptable for everyday everyday communication. However, it can create a little confusion if we're talking about about doing business and scheduling business meetings.

Research excerpts

If we explore the origin of these terms further, the word merediem is translated from Latin as middle. That is, it turns out that it can mean both the midday boundary and the midnight one. Because of this, experts in the field concluded that the AM-PM time designation could be reversed, creating even more confusion. As a result, the United States has adopted strict rules that define midnight as 11:59 PM when referring to the end of the day. And in order to indicate the beginning of a new day, they most often say 12.01 AM. This practice occurs in jurisdictions and in everyday life.

A short afterword

It is very important that in school years the child understood this simple topic in English. This will make it easier for him to navigate space, and in the future there will be no difficulties in work and other areas of life.

You can also explain AM-PM by making two watches with your own hands. There will be nothing special about them except that the letters AM will be located in the center on some, and PM on others. In the first half of the day, place the first clock on the baby’s table so that the brain records the “morning-light-AM” pattern. And in the afternoon, focus on the time shown by the clock with the letters PM.

“Tell me, what time is it now?” - This is perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions. And if they ask you in Russian, you will probably just look at the time and calmly say the number. What if you are asked to tell the time in English? How to respond correctly to a person who is looking at you with an expectant look? Of course, you can not tell the time, but simply point your finger at the clock, but why not learn how to say phrases about time, which will certainly be useful to you. It’s actually not difficult to do this, and today you will see for yourself by studying the topic “Time in English table clock”.

How to ask the time in English?

First, let's figure out how to say “what time is it” in English. Typically, for such a question, the following phrases are used that need to be learned:

You can also use the combination "what time" in questions about actions in the past, present and future:

Instead of "what time" in a question can also be used question word"when":

Having figured out how to ask what time is in English, let's study possible options answers.

Time in English: tables about hours

The question of what time it is in English can be answered in two ways:

The first is equivalent to the Russian “fifteen minutes to such and such”, “20 minutes of such and such” and similar time designations. To use this option, you need to learn two time indicators. Let's look at the table of these prepositions with transcription:

Sentences about time must begin with the subject and predicate “it is,” which are often shortened to “it’s.” They are used to construct a sentence, but in translation into Russian, as a rule, they are omitted. After them comes the number of minutes, then one of the time indicators above. The sentence ends with a number indicating the hour. Sometimes the time of day is indicated after the hour:

In general, the construction table looks like this:

minutes

past/to

hour

Times of Day.

Examples:

It’s five past ten (in the evening).	Five minutes past ten (pm).
It's twenty six minutes to ten.	Twenty-six (minutes) ten.
It's ten to one.	Ten to one.

Perhaps these examples only left you with even more questions. Let's look into them. In the first sentence, you might be confused by the translation, because instead of the indicated ten (ten) in Russian, it’s unclear where “eleven” came from. The fact is that they usually translate the time so that everything sounds clear in Russian. If translated literally, the sentence will sound a little different:

That is, in English they mean that at first it was 10 o’clock, and after that 5 minutes passed. In Russian, as a rule, we believe that it’s already 11 o’clock, and therefore, despite the fact that, in fact, the clock says 10:05, we call the next hour in order.

In the second example, everything seems to be quite logical. However, you may have noticed that unlike the first example, the second example contains the word “minutes”. The fact is that if a sentence mentions numbers that are not multiples of five, the presence of this word is simply necessary. Let's compare:

Multiples of 5	Not multiples of 5
It's twenty past one. (It's twenty minutes past one.)	It’s seventeen minutes past one. (Seventeen minutes past two.)
It's five to four. (Five minutes to four.)	It's eight minutes to four. (Eight minutes to four.)

By the way, speaking of minutes, one cannot fail to mention words that are in some way an exception. In English, as well as in Russian, thirty minutes is called “half”. Therefore, when half of something is meant, the word half is used in the sentence in combination with past, since 30 minutes still refers to the first part of the hour:

Also, English speakers don't usually use the phrases "fifteen minutes" or "fifteen to fifteen." They replace the word fifteen with “quarter”. In English this word is translated as “quarter”. It is used according to standard schemes, but in combination with indefinite article a:

It’s a quarter past nine.	Fifteen minutes past nine.
It's a quarter to two.	It's fifteen minutes to two.

By the way, mentioning “to” and “too” it is worth noting that students often have doubts about these two words. Their pronunciation is the same, both pronounce the word as.

Note that some examples do not specify times of day. Everything here is very similar to the Russian language. After all, if it is clear from the context that we are talking about evening time, we do not focus on it. It is also worth noting that speech often leaves out everything except the time itself:

Everything seems clear with minutes, but what if we want to name the hour as an integer? In such cases, the word “o’clock” (hour) is added after the number, which can often be omitted. Please note that this word is written with an apostrophe, which in no case should be ignored:

It is not difficult to remember these adverbs, since they often appear in sentences outside of tense phrases.

If you are asked a question about when (what time) this or that event happened or will happen, you need to put the preposition at before the time, which plays the role of the Russian “in”:

If you want to say that an action (will be) done at some time, use the verb “by”:

In both cases, the time “twelve” can be expressed by nouns:

If you need to express that the action lasted from such and such a time to such and such a time, two prepositions are used at once: from (from)… to (until)…:

To say that some action lasted so many hours/minutes, the preposition for (“during”) is used:

Using the preposition in, you can say how long after the action occurred (will happen):

But there is a second option, which, perhaps, you will like much more. The English language is rapidly becoming simpler, and therefore, in order not to load sentences with “halves” and “pastes,” one can now increasingly hear this particular way of expressing time. In order to use it you need to know two things:

English counting to 60
Time indicators a.m. and p.m.

We still won’t dwell on numbers, but it’s worth talking about pointers, because they often cause difficulties for language learners. It's actually very simple. Both of these acronyms originate from Latin language and they mean the following:

a.m. – time before noon, that is, from 00:00 to 12:00;
p.m. – time after noon, that is, from 12:00 to 00:00.

As you may have noticed, neither the first nor the second case uses a 24-hour clock. It's simply not common in English-speaking countries. Therefore, you should not ignore these symbols, otherwise you may be misunderstood when using the 12-hour format.

When memorizing them, you can use the following technique: the alphabet begins with the letter a, it symbolizes the beginning. Accordingly, a.m. implies the beginning of a new day, while p.m. its continuation. If this method doesn't work for you, come up with another one, but be sure to learn to distinguish between both pointers.

In principle, no rules are used in the method itself. You just need to name the numbers, but not those that are shown on the dial, but those that can be seen in the corner of your computer desktop, electronic watch and telephone.

If it's clear from the context that you mean morning, afternoon, or evening, you don't have to say the pointers:

Which option to use is up to you. In any case, they will understand you. The only thing is, give preference to the standard option if you need to write time for any exam papers, because the second method is still less formal and is used exclusively in everyday communication. When writing your paper, consider what kind of English you are taught or what kind of English you are expected to use. Don't forget that instead of "past" and "to" in British, American English uses "after" and "of". Examples:

Seconds are also used to indicate exact time in English:

Numbers are not necessarily written in words. We did this solely for clarity, although the usual use of numbers is also relevant in English.

Time in English table clock: time dictionary

There are other words related to time that can be noted. They usually appear in sentences not to determine time, but knowing these words certainly won’t hurt:

Particular attention should be paid to the word “time”. Despite its importance, « "clock" and "time" in English can sometimes have nothing in common. Thus, “time” is used in questions about time, but in affirmative sentences this word is used independently and cannot tell time. That is, despite its meaning “time”, it does not name time itself:

It can also mean "times":

The same can be said about the word “hour”. Despite the fact that in a sentence about time hours are mentioned with minutes and seconds, the word “hour” itself is used only with “for” (“during”) or when indicating the number of hours spent. The word is also often used as part of phraseological units:

When specifying time
I am listening to his songs for 2 hours now.	I've been listening to his songs for 2 hours now.
We had to spend 6 hours in the queue.	We had to stand in line for 6 hours.
With phraseological units
I do love all the parts of Rush Hour. rush hour - rush hour	I love all parts of the movie Rush Hour.
We were waiting for zero hour to start the operation too long. The time has come! zero hour - decisive hour	We have waited too long for the decisive hour to begin the operation. The time has come!
I think his performance was just an amateur hour. amateur hour - when the action is performed not by professionals, but by amateurs	I think his performance was simply amateurish.

That's all. Studying this topic should not give you much difficulty. The main thing is to remember the indicator words. To reinforce the material, complete exercises on the topic and write your own examples. If some information has gone over your head, read this article again, paying attention to all the nuances. And, of course, try to interest yourself, because learning from your own will will not bring pleasure, and therefore no results.

IN modern world There are more than 200 countries, and each country has its own customs and traditions that shape the way of life of people and their habits. Little things in culture, it would seem, should not influence a person’s understanding at all, but this is not the case. We do not notice insignificant things, although they contain a lot of interesting and unusual things. Such little things include differences in time formats.

In this article we will understand what time formats exist, what is their difference? Why can't we introduce a uniform time in the world? How to understand the designations of different formats? What is the indication of time in English?

Time formats

We live in a country that uses 24 hours of the day to indicate time. This format is called 24-hour. But there are also countries that only use 12 hours in a day. Only 12 hours are used on the dial.

What's also interesting is that most people who live on a 24-hour clock often only use 12 hours. For example, we do not say “I’ll be there at 19,” but “I’ll be there at 7” or “I’ll be there by 7 pm.”

Where did the two formats come from? It is clear that 24 hours is the length of a day. But why 12 hours and not 4 or 6? The format, when the day is divided into two parts of 12 hours, came from Ancient world. In Mesopotamia, Rome and Ancient Egypt They used sundials during the day and water ones at night. Some countries did not change the knowledge received by their ancestors, but left the 12-hour format.

As for the USA, 2 formats are appropriate there. The most commonly used is 12 hours, but if you say, for example, “20 hours,” you will probably not be understood, since 24 hours is a military format.

Time notation in English

Which countries use 12 and 24 hour clocks? IN English speaking countries The 12-hour format is most often used, which is why abbreviations were originally invented. The designation of time in English is pm (from the Latin Post meridiem - “after noon”) and am (from the Latin Ante meridiem - “before noon”). And if the Americans somehow understand you, then the other English-speaking world will prove that there is no more than 12 hours. A.m. consumed from 12 midnight to 12 noon, and for p.m. it's the other way around. For example, if you want to say 15:00, then it will be 3pm, and 1 o'clock in the morning will be 1am. This is the only way to indicate time in English.

It is quite difficult to remember these designations without constant repetition. Do you want to know how to easily and easily store them in memory? All you have to do is set your phone, tablet or computer (whichever you use most often) to a twelve-hour format. Usually it takes a couple of days to get used to it. Most people who switch to a 12-hour day format use it that way.

What about telling the time in English on a clock? Like ours, the dial also has 12 o'clock. And there is a difference in electronic media. All electrical devices use twelve hours, but we all have 24.

Which countries use 12 and 24 hour clocks?

As mentioned above, the world is conventionally divided into countries that use twenty-four hours to indicate time, and countries that use a 12-hour format.

Countries with a 24-hour format include most of the world, for example, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Japan. In Australia, New Zealand and the USA (that is, in countries where time is written in English) they use 12 hours in a day. This proves the fact that English speaking people It’s awkward to say, say, “16 o’clock.”

There are also countries where both options are acceptable. These are Greece, Brazil, France, Great Britain, Albania and Türkiye.

What about Canada? As you know, Canada has two official languages - English and French. The country is divided according to linguistic criteria into regions - provinces where French is spoken, and territories where English is the predominant language. All of Canada uses the 12-hour format, as it was long a British colony, but in the province of Quebec, people more often use the 24-hour format.

Conclusion

So, we figured out that there are two time formats - 12 and 24 hour. 12 hours are often used in English, which is why special abbreviations were invented. Time is indicated in English using four letters - am (before noon) and pm (after noon). To better remember where, what and when to use, you need to install a twelve-hour time format on your phone, tablet or computer. If you want to go to a country where they use this format, for example, the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, it is worth preparing in advance to avoid misunderstandings.