"Military time" is just the 24-hour clock — the same one most of the world keeps everyday time on. Instead of starting over at noon, the hours run straight from 0000 at midnight to 2359 at the last minute of the day. Here's the full conversion chart, how to switch between the two in your head, and why midnight is written 0000.
After noon, add 12 to the hour. Before noon, keep it and add a leading zero.
So 1:00 PM is 1300, 5:00 PM is 1700, 9:00 AM is 0900. Midnight is 0000 and noon is 1200. There's no AM or PM because every hour of the day already has its own number.
Every hour of the day, in both formats, with the way it's said out loud. The morning hours barely change — they just gain a leading zero. The afternoon and evening are where the numbers jump ahead by 12.
| 12-hour | 24-hour | Spoken |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 AM | 0000 | "zero hundred" |
| 1:00 AM | 0100 | "oh one hundred" |
| 2:00 AM | 0200 | "oh two hundred" |
| 3:00 AM | 0300 | "oh three hundred" |
| 4:00 AM | 0400 | "oh four hundred" |
| 5:00 AM | 0500 | "oh five hundred" |
| 6:00 AM | 0600 | "oh six hundred" |
| 7:00 AM | 0700 | "oh seven hundred" |
| 8:00 AM | 0800 | "oh eight hundred" |
| 9:00 AM | 0900 | "oh nine hundred" |
| 10:00 AM | 1000 | "ten hundred" |
| 11:00 AM | 1100 | "eleven hundred" |
| 12-hour | 24-hour | Spoken |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 PM | 1200 | "twelve hundred" |
| 1:00 PM | 1300 | "thirteen hundred" |
| 2:00 PM | 1400 | "fourteen hundred" |
| 3:00 PM | 1500 | "fifteen hundred" |
| 4:00 PM | 1600 | "sixteen hundred" |
| 5:00 PM | 1700 | "seventeen hundred" |
| 6:00 PM | 1800 | "eighteen hundred" |
| 7:00 PM | 1900 | "nineteen hundred" |
| 8:00 PM | 2000 | "twenty hundred" |
| 9:00 PM | 2100 | "twenty-one hundred" |
| 10:00 PM | 2200 | "twenty-two hundred" |
| 11:00 PM | 2300 | "twenty-three hundred" |
Minutes work the same in both: 5:45 PM is 1745, said "seventeen forty-five." The "hundred" wording is only used when the minutes are zero.
A military time is always four digits with no colon. The first two are the hour (00 to 23) and the last two are the minutes (00 to 59):
1430 = hour 14, minute 30 = 2:30 PM
If the hour is 12 or less, the time is in the morning (or noon) and reads almost like a normal clock — 0830 is 8:30 AM. If the hour is 13 or more, subtract 12 to get the afternoon time — 1930 is 19−12 = 7:30 PM.
Two small rules cover every time of day:
The only places people stumble are the two boundaries — midnight and noon — because that's where the "+12 / −12" shortcut needs the 12-to-0 swap. Everywhere else it's just arithmetic.
This is the one genuine ambiguity in the 24-hour clock. Both 0000 and 2400 point at midnight, but they mean it from different sides:
0000 is the start of a day — the instant the clock rolls over and a new date begins. One minute later is 0001. This is the standard, everyday choice.2400 is sometimes used for the end of a day, mostly on timetables and shift schedules, to say "midnight at the close of this date" rather than the start of the next one.When in doubt, use 0000 for midnight — it's what clocks, phones and computers show, and it never leaves a day with two endings.
Said aloud, a round hour gets the word "hundred": 0600 is "oh six hundred," 1500 is "fifteen hundred," and many people add "hours" on the end — "fifteen hundred hours." A leading zero is pronounced "oh" (or "zero" in stricter use), which is where the classic "oh six hundred hours" comes from. When there are minutes, you just read them: 1745 is "seventeen forty-five." Noon is "twelve hundred" and midnight is "zero hundred" or simply "midnight."
It's far from just the military. Most of Europe, Latin America and Asia use the 24-hour clock for everyday life — a train at 18:40, a shop open till 20:00. Hospitals use it on charts so a medication time can't be misread, aviation and transport run their timetables on it, and every computer and phone stores time the 24-hour way underneath, even when it shows you AM/PM. The reason is always the same: one unambiguous number per moment, with no AM/PM to drop or confuse. It's the same instinct behind writing dates in an unambiguous format, and once a time crosses borders the next thing it needs is the time zone it belongs to.
Add 12 to the hour and drop the AM/PM. 1:00 PM becomes 1300, 5:00 PM becomes 1700, 11:00 PM becomes 2300. Noon is the exception — it stays 1200. Morning times keep their hour with a leading zero, so 9:00 AM is 0900.
1700 is 5:00 PM. The first two digits are the 24-hour hour (17); since that's past 12, subtract 12 to get the afternoon time — 17 − 12 = 5 PM. It's said "seventeen hundred."
0000 is 12:00 AM — midnight, the start of a new day. The next minute is 0001, and an hour later is 0100 (1 AM).
To remove the AM/PM ambiguity that can cause serious mistakes. Every moment of the day has exactly one number, so 0300 and 1500 can't be mixed up the way "3:00" can. Hospitals, aviation and computers use the 24-hour clock for the same reason.
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