Telling Time 15:40 (Hours:Minutes) in US American and UK British English. How To Say What Time It Is, Civil, Military and Casual, Written Out in Words. Time to Words Converter
What time is it? Telling time: 15:40
Write Out (the) Time in Words
Telling time using: 1. Civil Time. 2. Casual Time, influenced by the digital. 3. Casual Time, rounding up or down. 4. Military Time.
A. Writing and telling time in American English
1. Telling time using Civil Time
Time written out in words, in American English:
[ | ] - Either could be used.
15:40 = twenty [of | till | until | before | to] four in the afternoon.
2. Telling time using Casual Time, influenced by the digital
Time written out in words, in American English:
To differentiate between the hours until noon and those after noon, an additional indicator is used to display time: a.m. (ante meridiem - before noon) and p.m. (post meridiem - after the noon).
p.m. = post meridiem (after the noon).
[ | ] - Either could be used.
15:40 = three forty [p.m. | in the afternoon].
3. Telling time using Casual Time, Rounding Up or Down
Time written out in words, American English:
When telling time many of us use to round off the number of minutes to the nearest multiple of 5.
In our case we don't have to round the number of minutes up or down.
[ | ] - Either could be used.
15:40 = twenty [of | till | until | before | to] four in the afternoon.
4. Telling time using Military Time
Time written out in words, American English
No semicolon between numeric hours and minutes.
Military time is used to avoid any possible confusion between a.m. - ante meridiem (morning, before noon) and p.m. - post meridiem (after the noon).
Each day is made up of a single 24-hour period, beginning at midnight.
1540 hours = fifteen forty hours.
B. Writing and telling the time 15:40 in (UK) British English
1. Telling the time, Civil Time:
twenty to four in the afternoon.
2. Telling the time, Casual Time:
three forty [p.m. | in the afternoon].
[ | ] - Either could be used.
p.m. = post meridiem (after the noon).
How to tell (the) time în English:
The minutes:
The number of minutes is said first then the number of hours, unless the hour is sharp (on the dot - i.e. five o'clock), in which case the number of minutes is not said.
The word 'minutes' is not said when the number of minutes is a multiple of 5 (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, ...).
In our case the number of minutes is more than 30 (more than half an hour) so it means that our time is closer to the next hour.
In this case we say the number of minutes remaining till the next hour.
Subtract our number of minutes from 60: 60 - 40 = 20.
The hours:
Civil time day is divided into two 12-hour periods beginning alternately at 12 at midnight and at 12 at noon.
Since our number of hours is more than a 12-hour period, subtract 12 from our number of hours: 15 - 12 = 3.
Add 1 to the hours number since the number of minutes is more than 30 (more than half an hour) - the time is closer to the next hour: 3 + 1 = 4.
Analog clocks - Did you know?
- The minute hand revolves 12 times faster than the hour hand: the hour hand goes once around the clock every 12 hours while the minute hand goes once around the clock every 1 hour.
- The second hand revolves 60 times faster than the minute hand: the minute hand goes once around the clock every 60 minutes, while the second hand goes once around the clock every one minute; and 12 × 60 = 720 times faster than the hour hand.
- The way we are telling time is a direct result of the way the analog clocks (mechanical clocks, with hands) looked like in the past (they still look almost the same).