13:00 20:00 pronunciation

[Rachel Adams]

Is the time below ever pronounced as "thirteen o'clock" and "twenty o'clock"? In the military would it be pronounced as "thirteen hindred hours" and "two hundred hours" or as "thirteen oh oh" and "twenty oh oh"?
Or perhaps "one three oh oh" and " two oh oh oh". The latter is unusual I think.

13:00

20:00

 

[Rover_KE]

thirteen hundred hours
twenty hundred hours

In conversation, 'hours' is often omitted, but you can forget the rest.

 

[emsr2d2]

The beauty of the 24-hour clock system is that you only need to say the numbers. With the 12-hour clock, you have to specify am or pm. I have worked at an international airport and an international train station and we used only the 24-hour system to refer to arrival and departure times.

Q: What train are you working on today?
A: The twenty thirty-six to Paris.

Q: What time's the Dubai flight due in?
A: Thirteen oh four.

 

[Rachel Adams]

The beauty of the 24-hour clock system is that you only need to say the numbers. With the 12-hour clock, you have to specify am or pm. I have worked at an international airport and an international train station and we used only the 24-hour system to refer to arrival and departure times.

Q: What train are you working on today?
A: The twenty thirty-six to Paris.

Q: What time's the Dubai flight due in?
A: Thirteen oh four.

So this pronunciation isn't used in the army only but also when we are talking about timetables. I mean the pronunciation of 13:04 and 20:36 as you wrote instead of "one oh four" and "eight thirty-six.'

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

So this pronunciation isn't used in the army only but also when we are talking about timetables. I mean the pronunciation of 13:04 and 20:36 as you wrote instead of "one oh four" and "eight thirty-six.'

The British might use it in timetables. In the US, we don't. We just use "a.m." and "p.m."

 

[emsr2d2]

So this pronunciation isn't used in the army only but also when we are talking about timetables. I mean the pronunciation of 13:04 and 20:36 as you wrote instead of "one oh four" and "eight thirty-six.'

I don't think anyone's ever said it's used only in the army. I think AmE speakers might call it "military time" but in the UK we just call it the 24-hour clock. I wouldn't use it in everyday speech. However, we also didn't just use it for transport timetables when I worked at the airport/train station. Our shift times (which I suppose you could call a sort of timetable) were referred to in the same way.

Helen: What are you working on Tuesday?
Sarah: Oh eight hundred to sixteen thirty.