12/24-hour clock, again

This gets conflicting answers every time it's asked, but I'll ask, anyway...

Do the following countries use a 12- or 24-hour clock? That is, if I ask someone off the street what time it is, will they respond "2 pm" or will they respond "14:00"?

* Australia
* Canada (except Quebec and other Francophone communities)
* Colombia
* India
* Malaysia
* New Zealand
* Philippines
* United Kingdom (edit: what about Ireland?)
* United States of America

This is a list of countries that wiki says use a 12-hour clock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12-hour_clock

I'm not asking if people are familiar with the 24-hour clock or if train schedules use a 24-hour clock or any other thing that commonly confuses the issue.

If I ask someone off the street, which are they likely to be more comfortable with?

I'll start by confidently stating that the USA is solidly in the 12-hour camp

Edit: I'm more interested in whether the clocks in your country are 12- or 24-hour than I am in how time is spoken in conversation, so let me ask... Are the digital clocks (for the home) in your country 12- or 24-hour?

Thanks,
Anya

Do any countries actually say the time in 24 hour format? UK is most definitely not doing that, nor is Ireland grand slam winners

Yes, spoken vs clocks is definitely a confusing issue, and I'm more interested in clocks than conversation, so...

Are digital clocks (for the home) in your country 12- or 24-hour?

Most, if not all, digital clocks I have seen are selectable for 12 or 24 hour time. Personally, I use 24 hour time (in the US) on my clock on my nightstand because my job uses it.

Digital clocks are usually set default to 24 hour format, my mobile phone uses 24 hour format, so does the clock on my PC and I wouldn't change either, but looking at those clocks now I still think "It's quarter to nine".

Here's more. According to this, Korea also uses 12-hour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_by_country

As far as I am concerned, the world functions for me in a 24-hr format. When u see a train about to leave platform 3, it gives a time of 1915 hrs. not 7.15, this I assume is not to confuse it with the 7.15 in the morning............(which come to think of it, it's more likely to leave at). I still speak to people who think 1900 hrs. is like 5 p.m. anyway....however most digital formats still give a 12 or 24 hr. format option......it's like kilometrers v miles, or litres v gallons.....metric or imperial the conundrum of modern day living.........ho hum
finn

I always use the 24hr clock as to me its natural after years in the Military and i must admit i hear more and more using it nowadays as the normal thing to do here in Holland.

No-one uses the 24hr clock that I know of except when in a work situation where work is a 24hr environment.. like military, hospital, taxis, etc etc etc

I have lived in Australia, New Zealand, UK and US. I would say usage is similar across all those places. That is, most people are most comfortable with 12 hours although people are also familiar with 24 hours.

You'd be told "It's about 2"
And if you then wanted to know if that was AM or PM, you'd be looked at with an expression that means "Feckin' eejit".

I worked in the hotel industry for almost 20 years. Military time is what we used most often. I have my clocks set for 24 hour time, but speak in 12 hour time. I'd rather use 24 hour time for speaking but most people in the US would give me a blank stare.

Businesses and the government use both clocks, though 24-hour is the preferred clock for public safety (police, hospitals, the military, private security, etc).



Generally speaking, train/public transit schedules reflect popular usage.



Not as solidly as you would imagine. Adding to the confusion, many places that do use a 24-hour clock, supply 12-hour clocks instead of 24-hour ones. And then there's public transit in many cities, which publish schedules in 12-hour format (with PM times in bold), but the station clocks themselves are 24-hour digital jobs (and a great location to stand if you want to find out who in your town has functionally less than an inner-city Californian first-grade education).

Unless they're in the military or somesuch, an Aussie or a Pom will give you a 12-hour clock spoken answer. In conversation with the French and the Dutch, however, I find the 24-hour spoken clock to be the norm, and in fact throughout Europe, most people will know what you mean if you use the 24-hour clock despite the fact that they might 'speak' the 12-hour. I believe this is also true for most Asian countries (south-east, at least), but I'm not sure about the Middle East.

Most Aussies, on the other hand, suffer apoplexy if you dare to suggest that timetables should use the 24-hour clock, because it's waaaay too confusing...

In the UK we are clever and use and understand both 12 and 24 hour clocks (and many of our home devices have options to display either)

Unlike Americans who don't understand 24 hour clocks at all (unless they are in the army)

LOL

(Only joking!!!)

I think it's most common for a 12 hour format if you live in localized environment without much outside contact. if you live in a more globalized environment and/or science oriented the odds for using a 24hr format go up. at least that's what I see.

I think it's because if you're only concerned with the local, you automatically know whether a reference is AM or PM, something that might be harder to guess if it's not in your locations.

To be honest, for me growing up in the UK, using a 24 hour clock was the "Modern / New" thing to do when Digital Watches came into existance.

When I was a kid, all the old folks had wall clocks and watches with hands on.

Then as a teenager suddenly we had the 1st red LED digital wathches that had the cool modern, hi-tech 24 hour format.

Certainly for me, that was the 1st time I really used 24 hour, then we Had Video recorders and digital alarm clocks with also had the (seeminly) modern 24 hour format.

Even now, it's more the old folks that can't handle the 24 hour format in their heads.



The thing is, although (in the UK) we often have clocks showing the time in 24 hour format. We don't really every SAY that time,

We migght be asked what the time is, look at our watch and read 17:20 and tell the person it's Five Twenty.

I don't know anyone that would actually "SAY" Seventeen Twenty

Most of the people I deal with out on the streets (in the US), will speak time in 12-hr format. At work, much of the talk is in 24-hr terms, but I work in IT for police, fire, and sheriff departments. Also, anytime I am talking to someone with a lot of military in their background, they will usually talk in 24-hr terms.

So I guess the answer, like many other things, is *it depends*.

Well I use it, every place I have worked uses it, everyone I know uses it. Airports, train stations etc all use it. I'm in the UK.

I was talking about speaking it Eve, do you say "Twenty Three Fifty Five" or would you say "five to twelve"?

I know of no "normal" person who would actually say the words "Twenty Three Fifty Five"

they would either say, it's "Eleven Fifty five" or "Five to Twelve"

Having said that, my mother (older generation now 75) says weird things like" Five and Twenty Past four" and I have no idea why some old people (uk) say that?

I'm from Britain and I'm a bit funny because I always set digitals clocks or watches to 24 hour clock. All our bus and train timetables are in 24 hour system.

If someone in the street asks me the time, I look at my cheap little watch and if it says 14:37, I tell the person "it's two thirty-seven"!!!

If I'm at work, or booking travel arrangements, then yes.

Having lived in the US and UK I'd say Americans are completely incapable of handling 24 hour clocks. it's quite amusing to watch them sit there and struggle with subtracting 12 or whatever they're doing in their heads.

Meanwhile, most English people I know are as familiar and comfortable with 12 as 24 hour clocks. Although everyone here /speaks/ in 12 hour format. In my experience many Europeans will actually speak in 24 hour format but I shouldn't comment for them since I'm not so familiar.

I would say that the vast majority of digital clocks are set to 24 hour format. Certainly every public location is on 24 hour format, all my personal clocks are on 24 hour format. It really would be very inconvenient to have a digital clock in 12 hour format. Especially an alarm clock since I have a habit of waking up at times that could plausibly be in the AM or PM <G>

My digital clocks, watches, coffee maker, computer time displays, etc. are all set to 12 hour format.