English

Clock with A.M. P.M. time
Clock with AM PM indication

AM PM time, what does am and pm stand for?
A 12 hour time indication is only used in English speaking countries. The written time has only 12 hours, while we have 24 hours in one day. To determain if a written time is an hour in de morning or in the evening AM and PM is used. In most European countries there is a 24-hour written time used where 0 to 12 hour is in the morning and 13-24 is in the afternoon/at night.

Full form of AM and PM, AM PM Meaning
AM stands in short for Ante Meridiem, de latin name for “Before Midday” or “Before Noon”.
An example: 10.00 a.m. is 10 o-clock in the morning. With a 24 hour time this is 10:00.

PM stands in short for Post Meridiem, de latin name for “After Midday” or “After Noon”.
An example: 10.00 p.m. is 10 o-clock in the evening. With a 24 hour time this is 22:00.

full-day-am-pm-vs-24h

 

Remember how Am Pm is used (Mnemonic)
Keeping track and remember on how to use AM or PM can be pretty tricky. To be able to make remembering easier there are several ways and mnemonics that apply to this subject. We will explain some of them.

1. AM – After Midnight, tells you the time After Midnight. This is the time from Midnight to Noon.
PM – Pre Midnight, this is the time Pre (Before Midnight). This is the time from Noon to Midnight.

2. The A stands before the P in the alphabet.
AM comes first in the alphabet and therefore also first on a day (Morning) and PM comes last (afternoon/night).

3. PM – Passes Midday.
After Midday you need to apply PM times.

Learning AM PM is not needed with this clock
Clock with 12-hour and 24-hour display

 

Some terms and keywords
am = ante meridiem
Ante = before, meridiem = midday
pm = post meridiem
Post = after, so after midday in this case
last post – late – so after midday

 

Click here for the current time!

AmPm is not our only subject on this website. Besides AM PM we have more interesting pages about time!

Go directly to:

Plaats een Reactie