How to tell military time

Learning to tell military time seems a little daunting, but with our easy guide you'll be speaking fluent military time, well, in no time!
Tessa Robinson Avatar
military time
Military time. (U.S. Air Force photo illustration by 2nd Lt. David J. Murphy)

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Learning to tell military time seems a little daunting, but with our easy guide you’ll be speaking fluent military time, well, in no time!

What is military time?

First things first: Military time is based on a 24-hour clock instead of a 12-hour clock that magically switches from AM to PM at noon. Military time starts with 0000 (midnight) and ends at 2359 (11:59 PM). That’s right, it’s just one long digit – like an acronym, but with numbers.

The reason the military does this is to prevent any and all types of confusion on the battlefield. Storming the beach at 10:00 has no room for interpretation of AM or PM if it’s in military time.

So, how do you tell military time? The easiest way to remember it is a little bit of basic math. Before 10:00 am (the first “double digit” time of the day), you simply add a zero to the beginning of the number. Three in the morning? 0300. Six AM wake up? 0600. Doctor’s appointment at nine-thirty? 0930. You get it!

Then, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM (noon) all get to be left alone. 1000 hours = 10:00. 1100 hours = 11:00. 1200 hours, yep, 12:00.

Now, here’s where it gets a little more complicated: after 12:59 PM, instead of the clock striking 1:00 again (falling victim to the 12-hour clock!), we’re going into 24-hour mode. Which means after 12 comes the number 13. So, 1:00 in the afternoon is actually 1300 in military time. The easiest way to remember this is to add the number 12 to the PM hour digit. For example, for 1:00, we’d add 12 to the number 1 (hour digit): 12 + 1 = 13, therefore, it’s 1300 hours. For 5:00 pm, we’d add 12 to 5, so 17, thus 1700 hours. Here’s a handy guide just in case you need a little extra help:

military time chart

What is 0000 in military time?

0000 in military time is midnight, or 12:00 am.

What is 0100 in military time?

0100 in military time is 1:00 am.

What is 0200 in military time?

0200 in military time is 2:00 am.

What is 0300 in military time?

0300 in military time is 3:00 am.

What is 0400 in military time?

0400 in military time is 4:00 am.

What is 0500 in military time?

0500 in military time is 5:00 am.

What is 0600 in military time?

0600 in military time is 6:00 am.

What is 0700 in military time?

0700 in military time is 7:00 am.

What is 0800 in military time?

0800 in military time is 8:00 am.

What is 0900 in military time?

0900 in military time is 9:00 am.

What is 1000 in military time?

1000 in military time is 10:00 am.

What is 1100 in military time?

1100 in military time is 11:00 am.

What is 1200 in military time?

1200 in military time is noon, or 12:00 pm.

What is 1300 in military time?

1300 in military time is 1:00 pm.

What is 1400 in military time?

1400 in military time is 2:00 pm.

What is 1500 in military time?

1500 in military time is 3:00 pm.

What is 1600 in military time?

1600 in military time is 4:00 pm.

What is 1700 in military time?

1700 in military time is 5:00 pm.

What is 1800 in military time?

1800 in military time is 6:00 pm.

What is 1900 in military time?

1900 in military time is 7:00 pm.

What is 2000 in military time?

2000 in military time is 8:00 pm.

What is 2100 in military time?

2100 in military time is 9:00 pm.

What is 2200 in military time?

2200 in military time is 10:00 pm.

What is 2300 in military time?

2200 in military time is 11:00 pm.

After all of that you might need a drink. As they say… it’s 1700 somewhere.

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