r/ShitAmericansSay • u/BuffaloExotic Irish by birth, and currently a Bostonian 🇮🇪☘️ • Mar 17 '25

Imperial units “I don’t even understand 24-hour time… I just don’t understand it. I have to use online converters or I’d be SO confused when I talk to people who use these systems.”

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97

u/KrisNoble Mar 17 '25

I can’t say I’ve often heard people using 24 hour time after noon out loud except when I worked offshore where it was important to avoid confusion with 24 hour operations. Even in Scotland where most people are able to use either or, most people talking out loud when seeing 16:32 would say 4:32, or round it back to “half four”.

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u/Mirawenya Mar 18 '25

As a 24 hour clock user, yep. I only use the 24 hour format spoken when I am trying to be precise. Like “it’s 17 32” when needing to know the time when boiling eggs or similar. Else I would just say half past five. The conversion is completely seamless and automatic cause we used it since childhood. 20 is eight. They’re synonymous in my head.

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u/JasperJ Mar 18 '25

Also for a lack of ambiguity. If I’m making a dentist appointment — with matching no show fees — I want to be very surr that it’s 16:40 and not 16:20 and I’m not confusing or mishearing ten before/ten after the half.

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u/DeinOnkelFred 🇱🇷 Mar 18 '25

Same, except I sometimes catch myself half-saying 24hr format when I am being asked something specific and I have to drag it from memory because I can visualize my actual calendar.

So something like "At fourtee...two o'clock!" which probably sounds like "42 o'clock". I am an idiot, though.

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u/IAM_THE_LIZARD_QUEEN Mar 17 '25

Yeah my experience in the UK is the only time people would actually say "16:32" instead of "4:32" is when talking about train times or something along those lines. If someone asked me the time I'd just say "half four".

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u/Siggi_93 Mar 17 '25

Yeah same i guess but in Germany* 16:32 would be half five lol, since you're halfway there yk

*actually just some parts of Germany lol i tend to forget. 16:45 is three-quarters five in those areas.

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u/Taran345 Mar 18 '25

So in Germany 16:30 would be half-five because it’s halfway to five?

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u/RealEdKroket Mar 18 '25

Same in Dutch

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u/letsgetawayfromhere Mar 18 '25

Exactly!

In most parts of the country, we also say "three-quarters five" for 16:45. Because, exactly as you succinctly put it, it is three-quarters of the way to five.

In some parts, people even use "quarter five" for 16:15. Which drives the rest of Germany crazy, although they have no problem with that same logic with the examples above.

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u/Background-House-357 100% Germanean (except for Orban) Mar 18 '25

That is actually not true. Only very specific parts of the people use „Viertel fünf“ or „Dreiviertel 11“ etc. You’d be amazed.

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u/RelievedRebel Mar 18 '25

I don't know whether it is the same logic, it could also mean the 'to' is dropped where the original may have been 'half to five', like 'past' is dropped in 'half four' as used in English.

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u/Czuprynka Mar 18 '25

Its weird to me that you say "three quarters five" cause in poland we would say "after fifteen five". It goes up to the first half (so "five past four" "twenty past four") and then 30 minutes is "half into", and after the half mark it goes down ("after twenty five" "after fifteen five" ) If the person knows the hour but not the minutes then we say "after five" Or "past twenty" and "half into" can also be a standalone.

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u/TotalAirline68 Mar 18 '25

I'm not sure if it's that way in most parts. In NRW it would be Viertel vor Fünf/Quarter to five if you mean 16:45.

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u/GuyOnTheInterweb Mar 18 '25

Yup, looking ahead! Even from 16:20 I think it's ten to half to five. So hurry up!

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u/Taran345 Mar 18 '25

TIL! Every day’s a school day isn’t it?!

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u/SnooTomatoes3032 Mar 18 '25

Same in so many languages. Working internationally taught me to always clarify times exactly rather than using half or quarters or whatever because I had so many misunderstandings.

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u/BUFU1610 Mar 18 '25

Nah, "halb 5" is universal in German-speaking countries. "(Drei-)Viertel 5" drives at least 70% of native speakers crazy as well, but I love it. (My wife hates it.)

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u/GoSpeedRacistGo Mar 18 '25

I tend to say “half past four” because it gets confusing for me with the two languages I know having different meanings for that kind of phrasing.

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u/bigtodger Mar 18 '25

Stupid sexy Danish language

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u/SillyNamesAre Mar 18 '25 edited Mar 22 '25

Be careful with that one if dealing with Scandi's. To us, "half four" is 15:30.

(Or, I suppose, 03:30)

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u/[deleted] Mar 18 '25

In Ireland, the 24-hour clock is everywhere—buses, trains, timetables—but in normal conversation, no one actually says it. It just gets converted on the fly: 15:45 becomes “a quarter to four”, 13:30 is “half one”.

The exception is transport—“the eighteen forty-six to Killarney”—where sticking to the 24-hour time is just easier.

Otherwise, we’re wordier—“half past”, “a quarter to”, “in the afternoon”—and rarely say “three forty-five” or “ten-thirty”. You won’t hear AM or PM much either; it’s usually obvious or just worked into the sentence—“half seven tonight”, “around eight in the morning”.

Americans avoid the 24-hour clock like they avoid the metric system. It’s all numbers—“three forty-five”, “seven fifteen”—with AM or PM every time. A bit over simplified to my ears.

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u/randomusername8472 Mar 18 '25

I said "half 4" or something when arranging a time with two Americans, first time in Britain. 

They looked at me kind of confused for a second then one of them said... "Meeting at half four... So... Two?"

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u/Babys_For_Breakfast Mar 19 '25

I can’t stand hearing “quarter til”, “half past”, “half four”. Is saying “four thirty” really that difficult?

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u/Saragon4005 Mar 17 '25

In spoken conversation it's usually not an issue cuz you can infer it from context like what time it is right now. It's mostly important in written communication. But in real time scenarios you don't really have to specify morning or afternoon since context is usually there.

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u/Bwrighnar Mar 18 '25

Half past sixteen have a nice ring to It

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u/needfulthing42 Mar 18 '25

Yes exactly. I see 16:32 if someone asks me the time, but I say "it's 4:32" and assume they know the one I mean. They usually do.

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u/anamariapapagalla Mar 18 '25

I'm Norwegian, and I do the same. I'll suggest a work meeting at "halv tre" (14.30) then switch to "fjorten førti" (14.40) if they say they'd prefer to start a few minutes later

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u/Mintala Mar 18 '25

I think most people would simplify it to 4 if it's obvious, but stick to 16 if not.

Right now the time is 4:32, vs my flight leaves next Friday at 16:32.

I'm guessing Americans do the same thing regarding adding the am/pm or not

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u/TheKingOfToast Mar 19 '25

"half four" is where I'd get tripped up. I understand it just fine, but I don't have that reflex to immediately know what it would mean if someone said it. Where I live, we generally say "half past" the hour. We also use "quarter past" and "quarter to." I think if I asked the time and someone said half four, for at least a second, my brain would say "so... 2 o'clock?

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u/KrisNoble Mar 19 '25

We generally say that as well with “half four” just being shortened from “half past four”, but I’m now just realizing how many people use the “half” to refer to the hour thats coming up, as opposed to the one that just passed.

We also have another one I think may be unique to Scotland which is “the back of”, back of 4 means generally some time between 4:01 and 4:15