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For me it clears it up only 92% of the day. I couldn't tell you when 12:xx AM/PM is right now.
by zeeZ 6y ago
For me it clears it up only 92% of the day. I couldn't tell you when 12:xx AM/PM is right now.
- Fnoord 6y agoPM means post meridiem. That's Latin, but you don't have to remember it. If you simply remember the P means 'post', and the 'M' means the exact middle of the day (12 noon) then you know 12 PM is 12.00 (after noon hence afternoon) and 12 AM is after midnight or 0.00 (the hour after previous day's 23.00 / 11 PM). Then you just need to remember morning is AM, afternoon is PM, evening is PM, and night is AM. That's it. Yeah, I find 24H system easier, but its what my native locale uses, so I am biased... (as is everyone else)
- Swizec 6y agoThis is in fact so simple to remember that street signs in San Francisco, where AM/PM is native, use 11:59am/pm or 12:01 and never 12:00 to avoid ambiguity. Street cleaning from 12:01am to 3:00am, for example.
- Fnoord 6y agoOnly thing to remember there is: .00 means new hour. Which the number before .00 denotes. Caters to lowest common denominator. I had all this explained on elementary school (which was boring and slow as fuck) during English class, and we don't even use 12H system in The Netherlands. It is quite frankly as simple to remember as a logic (tho not necessarily common) grammar rule.
- jcelerier 6y agoit's really weird tho 12AM 1AM 2AM 3AM 4AM ... 11AM 12PM 1PM 2PM ... 11PM 12AM 1AM even the way you explain it: "then you know 12 PM is 12.00 (after noon hence afternoon) " when I read "12 after noon", I understand "noon + 12 hours" which should give midnight..
- ryanianian 6y agoMnemonic: “AM” is “Always Midnight”
- HenrikB 6y agoFWIW, there's also 00:00 and 24:00 to distinguish midnight at the beginning of the day versus the end of the day.
- nicwolff 6y agoThe easy way is to remember that the hour following 12 pm is clearly in the afternoon, so 12 pm must be noon.