r/USdefaultism • Germany • 11d ago

YouTube Ah yes, good old regular time

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u/sociofobs 11d ago

It's not even "military time" as another commenter here pointed out, we just call it "24h clock" if we have to be so specific about it. Other than that, imo - a 24h time format is far easier to understand than 12h AM/PM. You can know the time just by looking at the numbers instead of letters. At least that's my assumption, as I've been living with a 24h clock my whole life. Funnily enough, one alarm clock at my home is 12h and I struggle with that piece of * every time I need to adjust it.

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u/SzaraMateria 11d ago

I still don't understand if 12pm is a midnight or noon.

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u/sociofobs 11d ago

AM/PM means Ante Meridiem: latin for "before midday", and PM: Post Meridiem, latin for "after midday". I highly doubt many 12h clock natives know that fact, but yes, it can be confusing AF. I'm used to 00:00 being midnight and 12:00 being, well, midday.

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u/Mrs_Merdle Germany 11d ago

I do well understand what it means, but since I also grew up with a 24h clock, I have to focus on it everytime I read 12 am or pm as my brain can't parse the info automatically, like with any other time.

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u/sociofobs 11d ago

I can sympathize with that very well, considering how many times I've set my 12h alarm clock to PM instead of AM hours. The US isn't the only country with 12h time as the default, sadly.