How does Europe say the time?

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Notabot
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How does Europe say the time?

Post by Notabot »

We were watching Phineas and Ferb today (which I assume is 100% culturally accurate), and they were in London. Their grandma said to meet them somewhere at "16 hundred hours". I know y'all use the 24 hour system, but that sounded more military to me. Then I realized that I've seen Europeans type about the time, but I don't know that I've ever heard it spoken. So how would you say "4:00 pm" and "5:15 pm" in European?
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Post by electro girl »

My parents always told me off for never telling the time properly. I became over reliant on digital clocks so always read the time like four thirty seven or seven fifteen instead of quarter to or past and so when reading an analogue clock it takes me a while. I just boils down to how you prefer to say it. My parents always say blank past or blank to but I've never known anyone to use military time.
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Knightdramon
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Post by Knightdramon »

In Greece, at least, we say it in the lowest number available; so for example 16:00 in the afternoon becomes 4 o'clock. Very rarely do we use pm or am, sometimes we use it to differentiate whenever an event is going to occur in the morning or at night.

Even when I was in the military, we read the time as above, never fully.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Yeah, no one in the UK uses the 24 hour clock in casual conversation. Was London covered in fog and full of cheeky cockneys as well?
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Yeh, no 'military' style in the UK normally, and unless precision is needed you get "half past twelve", "twenty to one" etc.

It actually shows up from time to time in sitcoms and the like (Blackadder II IIRC, the one with the bishop?), with a pay-off along the lines of "you shouldn't let me sleep in until four o'clock"/"no, it's four o'clock in the morning".

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Post by inflatable dalek »

When the store I work in briefly tried closing at night all the signage said we shut at "12PM". Worryingly I was the only person who seemed to notice this.
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Post by Notabot »

inflatable dalek wrote:Was London covered in fog and full of cheeky cockneys as well?
So they got that part right? :)
Actually, I think they only talked to one cockney guy at a car parts store, and they couldn't understand a word he said without a translation book. Then they turned Big Ben into a waterslide and their sister was pretending to be Sherlock Holmes. And the James Bond part was very good.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Notabot wrote: Actually, I think they only talked to one cockney guy at a car parts store, and they couldn't understand a word he said without a translation book.
One thing that bugs me about the similar gag in the third Austin Powers film is it goes to all the trouble of getting the cockney rhyming slang (mostly) right (it goes nuts at the very end of the scene for supposed comic effect) but have the two English characters engaging in it constantly call it "English English" in the way no actual English person (or indeed anyone else for that matter, I'd never heard cockney called that before) would.

You'd have thought despite being a (wonderful) shameless cash whore Sir Michael Cain would have pointed this out what with him being actually English and all. I mean, Americans do see to know what cockneys are, it's not as if they were doing the whole scene in Black Country dialect or something more obscure. Though that would be much funnier.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

After a far too long series of events I have, for good reason, wound up reading this thread out loud in the pub with the right accents. Assuming Notabot is Texan and Cliffy is a mad Welshman. My Greek is spot on though.

The big question here is: What the hell is the film mentioned by Notabot?
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Post by Denyer »

electro girl wrote:My parents always told me off for never telling the time properly. I became over reliant on digital clocks so always read the time like four thirty seven
Always preferred analogue (although calling something powered by motion and a battery reserve 'analogue' doesn't quite jive... plus they were around first) but it depends on what's short, and also whether we're talking past or to the hour. "Seventeen minutes to eleven" versus "ten forty three"...

Military time sounds a bit ridiculous, what with hours not having a hundred minutes.

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Post by Notabot »

:) You gave it away to Dalek before I could really mess with him by mentioning the platypus!
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Denyer wrote:Military time sounds a bit ridiculous, what with hours not having a hundred minutes.
"Mike, be here at twenty-hundred hours, everyone else, be here at eight"
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Post by Addl »

In Germany we always use then 24 hour system, even when talking. Because we do not use the "PM AM" thingy , we use the German "o'clock" word: for example sixteen o'clock thirty.

Very simple and you do not need the "hundred hours" term.
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Post by DrSpengler »

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Post by Sades »

I don't know about the rest of the world, but here in Canada we tell the time by watching the sun or the stars. F'real.

****s our transit passes right up every time.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Wait, is that thatch roofed country cottage supposed to be in the middle of London? And wouldn't a haggis convention be in Scotland?

And no, no one in this country tells the time like that. But as the old woman is pretending we don't have TV in this country she might just be being a ****.

Oddly enough the mockney was mostly right before going a bit bonkers at the end.
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Post by DrSpengler »

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Post by inflatable dalek »

Even if the character is Scottish no sane person would drive from London to Scotland and back in a day. We're not just a small village over here you know. ;)

Currently watching the British set Columbo, I'm not sure why they cast the bloke from the Knightrider pilot as the main guest star when there's no shortage of Brits in America. The difference between the (brief) UK filming and that done in the States is very sweet, especially the attempts to pass off an LA mansion for an English stately home (of the type we all live in) and the way they suddenly drive on the right.
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Post by DrSpengler »

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Post by Notabot »

It's one of those shows that kids like to watch but has enough stuff to keep the parents entertained too. It's very formulaic, but it's aware of the formula and uses the formula for comedic effect. ("Hey, where's Perry? Oh, there he is.) I find it very clever and amusing as opposed to a lot of the kids' show garbage that is out there.
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