The three rules
- Morning hours keep their number, padded to four digits. 7:00 AM is 0700; 11:45 AM is 1145.
- Afternoon and evening hours add 12. 2:30 PM → 2 + 12 = 14 → 1430. Going the other way, subtract 12 from any hour above 12.
- Midnight is 0000 and noon is 1200. These are the two everyone gets wrong, because 12 AM and 12 PM break the pattern the other hours follow.
There is no colon in strict military usage — 1430, not 14:30 — and no AM or PM, because the whole point of a 24-hour clock is that it cannot be ambiguous. Most of the world outside the US simply calls this the 24-hour clock and writes it with a colon.
Military time chart
Every hour on the hour. For the minutes in between, the minutes never change — only the hour does.
| Military | 12-hour |
Military | 12-hour |
| 0000 | 12:00 AM | 1200 | 12:00 PM |
| 0100 | 1:00 AM | 1300 | 1:00 PM |
| 0200 | 2:00 AM | 1400 | 2:00 PM |
| 0300 | 3:00 AM | 1500 | 3:00 PM |
| 0400 | 4:00 AM | 1600 | 4:00 PM |
| 0500 | 5:00 AM | 1700 | 5:00 PM |
| 0600 | 6:00 AM | 1800 | 6:00 PM |
| 0700 | 7:00 AM | 1900 | 7:00 PM |
| 0800 | 8:00 AM | 2000 | 8:00 PM |
| 0900 | 9:00 AM | 2100 | 9:00 PM |
| 1000 | 10:00 AM | 2200 | 10:00 PM |
| 1100 | 11:00 AM | 2300 | 11:00 PM |
Saying it out loud
Hours are read as a pair of two-digit numbers, and a whole hour ends in "hundred hours":
0600 — "zero six hundred hours"1200 — "twelve hundred hours"1430 — "fourteen thirty hours"0015 — "zero zero fifteen hours"2359 — "twenty-three fifty-nine hours"
Midnight is conventionally written 0000 at the start of a day and sometimes 2400 at the end of one. Because a shift ending at "2400 Tuesday" and one starting at "0000 Wednesday" are the same instant, careful schedules avoid both and use 2359 or 0001 instead.
Why timesheets prefer it
Ambiguity is expensive on a timesheet. "7:00 to 3:00" could be an eight-hour day shift or a twenty-hour marathon, and the reader has to guess. "0700 to 1500" cannot be misread. That is why hospitals, aviation, emergency services, logistics and most payroll systems standardise on it — and why the TimeWorked timesheet stores every entry as 24-hour time even when you type "3pm".
If you are converting a stack of handwritten cards, watch for 12:30 PM. It becomes 1230, not 0030 — the hour is already 12, so nothing is added. The same trap in reverse turns 0030 into 12:30 AM, half an hour after midnight.
Frequently asked questions
What is 1430 in regular time?
2:30 PM. Subtract 12 from the hour: 14 − 12 = 2.
What time is 1800 hours?
6:00 PM. 18 − 12 = 6.
Is midnight 0000 or 2400?
Both notations exist for the same instant. 0000 marks the start of a day and 2400 the end of the previous one. Because they are easy to confuse, many schedules use 2359 or 0001 instead.
What is 12:00 PM in military time?
1200. Noon is the one afternoon hour where nothing is added, because the hour is already 12. Midnight, 12:00 AM, is 0000.
Do you write military time with a colon?
Strict military usage writes 1430 with no colon and no AM or PM. The civilian 24-hour clock used in most of the world writes the same time as 14:30.
How do I convert PM times quickly?
Add 12 to the hour and keep the minutes: 3:45 PM → 15:45 → 1545. For AM times just pad to four digits: 7:05 AM → 0705.
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