A.M. or P.M.
A.M. and P.M. are short words used to talk about time in English. In English-speaking countries, a twelve-hour clock is usually used. This means that both 3 o’clock in the morning and 3 o’clock in the afternoon are referred to as “three o’clock” To tell if it’s 3 in the morning or three in the afternoon, we add a.m. or p.m.
The meaning of A.M. and P.M.
The words A.M. and P.M. come from Latin. A.M. stands for ante meridiem, meaning “before midday”. We use A.M. for hours from 00:00 to 11:59 (from midnight until just before noon). P.M. stands for post meridiem, meaning “after midday”. We use P.M. for hours from 12:00 to 23:59 (from noon until midnight)
3 p.m. = 3:00 in the afternoon (also 15:00)
10:00 a.m. = 10:00 in the morning
10:00 p.m. = 10:00 in the afternoon (also 22:00)
8:00 a.m. = 8:00 in the morning
8:00 p.m. = 8:00 in the afternoon (also 20:00)
Important!
Remember that A.M. is for morning and P.M. is for afternoon and evening.
p.m. = 12:00 – 23:59
Midnight or Noon?
Twelve o’clock is the time when the change from a.m. to p.m. and from p.m. to a.m. occurs. Because of this, it may be confusing what time we’re talking about, so 12 a.m. is called midnight, and 12 p.m. is called noon.
12 p.m. = 12:00 noon
P.M. for Noon?
P.M. means after midday, but twelve, which is noon, is not “after midday.” Because of this, it’s not entirely logical to use the P.M. shortcut for noon. Similarly, A.M., which means before midday, also doesn’t explain why the time changes from P.M. to A.M. at midnight. This is why noon is usually referred to as 12 p.m. and midnight as 12 a.m.
12 p.m. = 12:00
With midnight comes a certain problem – is midnight the beginning or the end of the day? If we talk about midnight on May 10th, do we mean the beginning or the end? Unfortunately, the shortcuts A.M. and P.M. don’t help resolve this problem. At airports or on trains, we might see the use of incomplete hours to prevent mistakes.
12:01 a.m. – beginning of the day
A.M. vs AM and P.M. vs PM
A.M. and P.M. are shortcuts, so they should be correctly written with lowercase letters and dots. Additionally, there should be a space between the time and the shortcut. However, in daily use, we might see a simplified writing style for these shortcuts – without dots, written in lowercase or uppercase, without a space between the time and the shortcut.
| a.m. | p.m. |
|---|---|
| 6AM 6am 6 A.M |
6PM 6pm 6 P.M. |
However, it’s important to consistently use the chosen writing style for these shortcuts.
How to Tell Time in English?
Basic concepts needed for telling time in English include a quarter, half past, to, past. Additionally, knowing numbers in English is useful.
10:15 a.m. – a quarter past ten
10:30 a.m. – half past ten
10:45 a.m. – a quarter to eleven
Hours in American English
In American English, we may encounter the use of after instead of past.
– It’s 4:20 p.m. (It’s twenty past four p.m.)
– What time does the movie start?
– It starts at 6 p.m.
