How to Learn Military Time
Military time is just the 24-hour clock written without a colon, in four digits. Learn the rules in about two minutes.
System 04 · Learn
The four rules
- 1. Count 00–23 hours. Midnight is 00, the afternoon runs 13–23.
- 2. PM = add 12. 2 PM → 14, so 2:30 PM → 1430. (12 PM stays 12: 1200.)
- 3. AM = keep the hour (12 AM becomes 00: 12:30 AM → 0030).
- 4. Always four digits, no colon. 0800, not 800 or 8:00.
Pronunciation
Speak each digit pair, then “hours”. 1430 = “fourteen thirty hours”. 0600 = “zero six hundred hours”.
| Military | Spoken |
|---|---|
| 0000 | Zero Zero Zero Zero · Zero Hundred Hours |
| 0030 | Zero Zero Thirty Hours |
| 0600 | Zero Six Hundred Hours |
| 0900 | Zero Nine Hundred Hours |
| 1200 | Twelve Hundred Hours |
| 1300 | Thirteen Hundred Hours |
| 1430 | Fourteen Thirty Hours |
| 1700 | Seventeen Hundred Hours |
| 2000 | Twenty Hundred Hours |
| 2005 | Twenty Zero Five Hours |
| 2359 | Twenty-Three Fifty-Nine Hours |
Common mistakes
| Wrong | Right |
|---|---|
| 800 | 0800 |
| 1500 PM | 1500 |
| 15:00 as military | 1500 |
| 1260 | Invalid — minutes 00–59 |
| 1200 = midnight | 1200 = noon |
| 0000 = end of day | 0000 = start of day |
0000 vs 2400
0000 is the start of a new day (12:00 AM). 2400 means “end of today” — it equals 0000 of the next day and is rarely used in formal military writing.
Practice until it’s second nature.
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