12 hour or 24 hour format

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Pacerier

Senior Member
English / Chinese
lols I accidentally created a new thead when I wanted to reply to this thread. Anyway thanks for the replies.


Also, I was wondering are time often said in the 12 hour format or the 24 hour format in Japan. Would we say 4pm as 午後四時 or 十六時

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    • Both forms are used. You rarely see times written in Kanji, so you'd rather see 午後４時 or １６時. I'd say colloquially "12 hour time" is more common, but it really depends on what's easier to say and understand. If it's 15 o'clock and you want to say you have to leave at 17:00, you'd probably use ５時. If it's not clear whether am or pm is meant, you'd prefix the time with 午前 or 午後 or say it in 24 hour format. That's the same usage as in most "24 hour countries" I'd say.

    Note that times after midnight like ２６時 aren't uncommon either. :)
     
    heys thanks for the in-dept reply =)
    anyway i was wondering what do you mean by times like ２６時? I've not heard of it before, is it like a short form for "2am the next day"?
     
    Exactly. Clubs may be open until 26時 or something may be on TV at 26時, meaning 2am. I think it's mostly used when something spans across from one day to the next, but I wouldn't have any empirical proof. ;)
     
    If you use the 12-hour format in Japan, notice that both noon and midnight are 0:00. So 12:45pm (in the afternoon) is written as 0:45
     
    nhk9 said:
    If you use the 12-hour format in Japan, notice that both noon and midnight are 0:00. So 12:45pm (in the afternoon) is written as 0:45
    Click to expand...

    I'm not sure that is true; I've definitely seen times written as 12:45 in Japan.
     
    Yabanjin said:
    I'm not sure that is true; I've definitely seen times written as 12:45 in Japan.
    Click to expand...

    Agreed. I think officially it's supposed to be 0:45, and you'll definitely see it this way on NHK. Informally though 12:45 is used quite often, and I've never heard anybody say "zero forty five".
     
    does that mean that even if its written 0:45pm, while reading we would pronounce it as ごごじゅうにじ?

    also, will 26時 be pronounced as にじゅうろくじ or にじ when reading?
     
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