Learn about the difference between am & pm as well as other keywords for telling the time.
12 o’clock: we all know there are two a day – one at lunchtime and one at night – but which one is 12am and which one is 12pm?
That’s what we’ll be looking at in this article. We will also see some other useful words and phrases that can crop up when we need to tell the time, or ask what the time is.
So what is am & pm?
First of all, what do am and pm actually mean? Both come from Latin originally:
am = ante meridiem (between midnight and midday)
pm = post meridiem (between midday and midnight)
So returning to the question about the difference between 8am and 8pm:
8am is in the morning, and
8pm is in the evening.
OK, but what if someone talks about something happening at midnight on Tuesday? Is that 12am or 12pm. Is it the night between Monday and Tuesday or between Tuesday and Wednesday ?
Midnight and midday
Some will say midnight is 12am, and therefore that midday (or noon) is 12pm. Others will say this doesn’t make sense as noon can be neither am (before noon) or pm (after noon)!
When we talk about midnight last night or midnight tonight, the meaning is clear ; but less so when we talk about, for example, midnight on Sunday. Is that at the beginning or at the end of Sunday?!
There is some debate about this so it’s better to be clear from the outset, for example:
I should be home by midnight Saturday night.
The last bus arrives just before midnight on Friday nights.
12-hour clock or 24-hour clock?
In English, do we use the 12-hour clock or 24-hour clock ? In other words, do we say for example 2pm or 14:00 ?
In general conversations and situations in English, we use the 12-hour clock format. In practice, that means counting the hours from 1 to 12 in the morning and in the afternoon. More often than not, it’s clear if we are talking about the morning or the afternoon. Let’s look at a few examples:
I usually have breakfast at about 6:30 – we have breakfast in the morning.
We’ve got a team meeting at 2:15 – a team meeting implies a work situation, people do work shifts but we can be reasonably sure it’s in the afternoon.
The film starts at 7:45 – films are usually shown in the afternoons and evenings so it’s 7:45pm.
Sometimes, such sentences can be unclear :
His plane leaves at 8:15.
Is that am or pm ? Planes leave at both those times. It’s clearer to say something like :
His plane leaves at 8:15 tomorrow morning.
They’ll be arriving at about 7:30 Friday evening.
Some other key vocabulary
To finish, here are some keywords (highlighted in bold) that can be useful when telling the time, some of which we’ve already seen :
I eat in the morning / afternoon / evening.
They sleep at night.
We arrived just before / just after 8 o’clock.
What time is it ? It’s almost 10 o’clock.
I should arrive at about / around 7:30.
You may also like:
- Principle or principal?
- ESL Corner
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Written by Owen Vickery for EnglishClub.com
Owen Vickery moved to France upon graduation in the UK. In English teaching for 20 years & author of 2 books, he contributes to a site for learning English & specialises in writing online content.
© EnglishClub.com
Noon is 12:00PM. Some think it is 12:00AM, but it isn’t, that’s midnight. PM means post meridiem (after noon) and AM means before noon, so there is confusion as to what noon is, but there is no confusion that the hour after noon is PM, so 12:01-12:59 is PM, post meridiem, after the sun has passed the meridian.
So, if 12:01-12:59 in the afternoon is 12:01-12:59PM, is noon 12:00AM or PM? You can take your pick as it is not before noon or after noon, it is noon. But it makes more sense for it to be 12:00PM as time going 12:00AM, then 12:01PM, 12:02PM makes no sense. Take a look at your favorite airline and book a flight at midday, book an appointment in Outlook or Google calendar, you’ll see they all use 12:00PM for midday.
what is next to 11:59 AM? ANS. 12:00 PM
Better to use 12noon or 12midnight,, to clarify the time,,,instead 12am or 12pm,,that’s all.
So I gather that from 10:59 pm, we can get to 11:59 pm by passing one hour, but if we pass one more minute, to get to 12:00 pm we need to go backwards 12 hours, since going forward one minute will take us to 12:00 am. And that is the start of a new day.
Language is as much an art as a science.
It’s good knowledge and thanks alot!!
Meridiem means noon (from the Latin meaning “half the day”). Thus a.m. means before noon (ante meridiem) and p.m. means after noon (post meridiem). So 12 can never be either a.m. or p.m.
My husband of 47 years and I were arguing about exactly this topic earlier in the day. Joe’s response (at Sheldon Li) is right on the mark,and also supports my arguement!
My husband of 47 years and I were arguing about exactly this topic earlier in the day. Joe’s response is right on the mark (and also supports my arguement)!
Rubbish most of it:-)
what comes after 11.59.59?
00.00.00!
Therefore midnight is 12 am – period.
Noon actually should be designated 12 M, or 12 meridiem.
A minute before midday is 11.59am
Naturally what should follow is 12.00am
One m8nute later is 00.01pm.
How do you go from 12pm to 00.01pm
Is it meant to confuse?
I would say that midday is 12.00am because a minute earlier is 11.59am.
use 12hr clock when talking .. cause more words after questions dont kill .. but use 24hr in any writing .. easy
When I was a lad (1940s), my teachers made it all very clear. “Noon” and “midnight” were used without any reference to the number 12.
12”am” and 12”pm” are each patent nonsense, since the moment of reaching each meridian is of infinitesimal time -passed as soon as it is reached.
The “Sunday midnight” ambiguity just has to be clarified by the context in which it is used.’
Our 12 hour clock convention splits the day into two 12 hour periods called am followed by pm. We should stop calling 1 minute after midnight 12:01 am as 12 hours of that new day have not yet passed, that time should be called 0:1 am or zero 1 am, 50 minutes later would be 0:51 am and 60 minutes after midnight would be 1 am, ie drop the 12 and call it 0/zero.
As a consequence 11 hours and 59 minutes after midnight would be 11:59 am and 1 minute later we would have both 12 am, (11+1) and also 0 pm or zero pm as it is the end of am and the start of the pm period, doesn’t matter which you use, it is clearly midday and the same point in time.
50 mins after midday would be 0:50pm or zero 50 pm, can’t be 12:50 pm as we haven’t even passed the first pm hour, 1:00 pm, yet. 11 hours and 59 mins after midday would be 11:59 pm. 12 hours after midday would be 12 pm and also 0 am, once again it’s the end of pm and the start of am, both conventions are correct at the point of midnight.
Saying that 15 minutes after midnight is 12:15 am implies that 12 hours and 15 minutes have already passed in that day, clearly it’s wrong, the 12 from the previous days pm period cannot possibly be included in the following day, our number system starts at 0 not 12 and as there are 60 minutes per hour, 15 minutes past midnight is 00:15 am or zero 15 am.
All that’s required to clear up the 12 am, 12 pm misunderstanding is to accept that 12 am follows 11 am to become midday which in reality is also 0 pm and 12 pm follows 11 pm to become midnight. This follows the 24 hour clock convention split into am and pm and means midnight is always the end of a day. Therefore meeting someone at midnight or 12 pm Monday is the last moment in time on Monday equal to the junction in time between Monday and Tuesday and not the junction of Sunday/Monday.
The use of 12 instead of 0/zero at the beginning of the am and pm periods is completely wrong and confusing. Both digital and analogue timepieces indicate precisely that convention, any time between the 12 and 1 on the timepiece is less than 1 approaching 1.
We say 12 at midday or midnight as a continuation of the sequence from 1 up to 11, and 12 comes after 11.
Hence, if we refer to the mornings and say 1 am to 11 am, then 12 must follow as 12 am (midday); and, if we refer to the afternoons and nights and say 1 pm to 11 pm, then 12 must follow as 12 pm (midnight). Think of it as simple counting.
This is confusing to me as well, but i think the 24 hour clock clears out the confusion
Thank you for all your comments. It is indeed a complicated question.
As Andrea says: “Better say “12 noon” or “12 midnight”, or else use the 24-hour clock (as airlines do).”
12pm is midday (or noon).
12am is midnight.
Midnight on Sunday is during the night between Sunday and Monday, as Joe says.
5 past midnight would either be 12:05am (in the 12-hour clock) or 00:05 (in the 24-hour clock) NOT 25:05. With the 24-hour clock, we start again from 00:00 after 23:59:59.
As the question can be so confusing it’s better to:
a) Use the 24-hour clock (00:00 for midnight – midnight on Sunday is at the end of Sunday). The 24-hour clock is generally used in aviation, the transport industry… Or
b) Use the 12-hour clock BUT say 12 lunchtime (or 12 noon) for the 12 o’clock during daylight hours and 12 midnight for the 12 o’clock during the night.
I think 12:00 “AM” should be noon after 12:00:01 should start with “PM”. Like wise 12:00 “PM” should be midnight after 00:00.01 (12:00:01) should start with “AM”!!!
For example after 24:00 we do have 24:01; 24:02 ….. so on till 24:59 when it is 24:60 which is 25:00 but we don’t say 25:00 but we say it 1:00 “AM”. Therefore from 24:00 to 24:59 should be “PM” not AM. Same way after 12:00 noon i.e. 12:00:01 to 12:59 should be “AM” not PM. otherwise one hour will be vanished in between. What do you think Mr. Author?
I agree with others who reason that 12 AM is midnight, as 12:01 AM is one minute past midnight. Just as 12:00:01 AM is one second past midnight.
12 AM is midnight from the logic that it would be hour cero (0) or 00:00 hours, because 0 o’clock comes before 1 o’clock, and it is the start of the new day, and AM, since its midnight-noon or morning hours.
So 12 o’clock midnight is equivalent to 00:00 hour.
12:00 pm is noon because the day is not over yet, and the laps of noon-midnight starts which means it’s afternoon.
The 24 hour clock makes this more obvious and clear.
in the 24 hour clock midnight is hour cero or 00:00, and noon still remains 12:00.
@ r j cedar
I think the article DOES answer the initial question: ie 12am and 12pm are meaningless, they have no meaning and should be avoided. Better say “12 noon” or “12 midnight”, or else use the 24-hour clock (as airlines do).
This article did NOT answer the initial question:
12 o’clock: we all know there are two a day – one at lunchtime and one at night – but which one is 12am and which one is 12pm?
My covid 19 shot is at March 23 at 12PM, logically that is 12 noon, but this is not a question of logic, but of time standards. Rather than saying “There is some debate about this” this article should say what the protocol actually is.
How to explain ” we will deliver your parcel between 10am and 12pm”……a time frame of 2 hours or 12?.
Thank you for your sharing。It’s very useful for me to understand the meaning of the PM&AM。
Using 24-hour method can revolve our confused about “the midnight on sunday”.
@sheldon Li
Yes, you might wonder: “Is it midnight at the start of Sunday or at the end of Sunday?” BUT, look at the word “midNIGHT”. Midnight is in the MIDdle of the NIGHT, not in the MIDdle of the DAY! Sunday NIGHT runs from 6pm (Sunday evening) to 6am (Monday morning). So “midnight on Sunday” is at the end of Sunday, not at the start. Check out Day and Night:
https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/time-day-night.htm
@sheldon Li
That’s a very good point! Midnight on Sunday is confusing.
Formal documents (contracts, agreements…) may well clarify by saying something like 23:59 or 00:01 to get around this question.
We can also say “midnight Sunday morning” or “midnight Sunday night” to clarify.
Thank you but I am more confused after reading this article because I still don’t know how to understand “the midnight on sunday”.
@Uni you’re an early bird 😉
It’s 9:43am in Spain.
I commented at 5:27 in the morning.
Thank you so much.
Good morning
Thanks.Very useful explanation
Thank you very much for goodgiving us this good explanation for the difference.
FAQs
What is diff between 12am and 12pm? ›
When most people say 12pm, typically they're talking about the middle of the day: 12 noon. When they say 12am, they normally mean 12 midnight.
How do you remember 12am and 12pm? ›How can I remember which of 12am/pm is noon or midnight? 12am is anti meridium, i.e. the middle of the day. 12pm is post meridium i.e. the middle of the night.
Does AM mean the time between 12 noon and 12 midnight True or false? ›A 12-hour clock represents the 24 hours of the day with the numbers 1-12, followed by AM or PM. The first 12-hour period, from midnight to noon, is AM. And the 12 hours from noon to midnight is P.M.
What day is 12 am? ›12:00AM is the start of the day, so midnight of the day before. How does the 12 hour clock time format work? The 12 hour clock runs as follows: 12:00AM, 1:00AM….
Why 12 PM and 12AM is incorrect? ›Neither should be used. You should really pay attention to the abbreviation. "a.m." means "ante meridiem" which means "before midday" and p.m. means "post meridiem", which means "after midday". Consequently to use am/pm to refer to midday, (12noon) is simply wrong (and similarly midnight).
What mean by 12AM to 12 PM? ›Midday and midnight conventions
There are no standards established for the meaning of 12am and 12pm. It is often said that 12am Monday is midnight on Monday morning and 12pm is midday. This puts all the times beginning with 12 and ending with am in the same one-hour block, similarly with those ending with pm.
12pm is midday (or noon). 12am is midnight.
What do you say in 12 PM? ›The greetings change depending on the time of the day. For example, “Good morning” is generally used from 5:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. whereas “Good afternoon” time is from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. “Good evening” is often used after 6 p.m. or when the sun goes down.
Does 12AM count as morning? ›12 a.m. is midnight. 12 p.m. is midday. After 12 a.m. it is morning. After 12 p.m. it is afternoon.
What time is 12 am and what time is 12 PM? ›The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language states "By convention, 12 AM denotes midnight and 12 PM denotes noon. Because of the potential for confusion, it is advisable to use 12 noon and 12 midnight."
Is 12 PM in the afternoon? ›
So technically, 12AM and 12:30PM is just afternoon, which technically is 12PM. So to avoid confusion, many people do not use 12AM or 12PM, and prefer to use midnight for 12AM and noon for 12PM. So afternoon begins at noon, and runs until evening.
What is the time between noon and midnight called? ›Antemeridian (a.m.) and Postmeridian (p.m.) are Latin words which mean midnight to noon (a.m.) and noon to midnight (p.m.). We use a.m. to express the time between 12:00 midnight and 12:00 noon. We use p.m. to express the time between 12:00 noon and 12:00 midnight.
Is 12 am tonight or tomorrow? ›It's better to say noon or midnight. Also, if you wonder whether tonight's midnight really belong to tonight – or to tomorrow morning: astronomers and the military use a system in which midnight is 0 hours. In that system, tonight's midnight is the first moment of tomorrow.
What is 12 am in 24-hour clock? ›Converting from a 12 Hour to a 24 Hour Clock
12:00 AM = 0:00.
Daytime is from sunrise (this varies, but we can say approximately 6am) to sunset (we can say approximately 6pm). Night-time is from sunset to sunrise. Every day starts precisely at midnight.
Why do we start at 12am? ›Since the highest point of the day was noon, the opposite has to be midnight that was when the 12 started over again, so that's why the day starts at midnight. The reason that the hands on a clock travel the way they do, or "clockwise," also goes back to the invention of the sundial in ancient Egypt.
Why does the day start at 12am? ›Some traditional agricultural societies start the day with dawn, but Roman civil society defined the day as beginning at midnight. The day was divided into ante meridiem (am) and post meridiem (pm), where the meridian refers to local noon.
Is 12 PM grammatically correct? ›Q: The parking signs in my town refer to noon as 12 p.m. Since “p.m.” stands for “post meridiem” (“after noon” in Latin), can 12 p.m. be used for noon itself? A: The simple answer is yes, but we'd advise against it. By convention, the term “12 p.m.” is used for noon in countries like the US with a 12-hour clock.
What is 12am to 6am called? ›The period between midnight and six in the morning is still "night" to most people. You could call it "early morning," too, since it's a.m. Some people who don't work traditional daytime hours or are up at odd hours for other reasons might make up their own words for all of these times of day, sometimes.
What do we say after 12am? ›Morning refers technically to the period from midnight to noon, so the greeting during that time is “Good morning.”
How do you write 12am? ›
- Lowercase a.m. and p.m. and always use periods.
- Lowercase noon and midnight.
- Do not use 12 noon or 12 midnight (redundant). Use noon or midnight.
- Do not use 12 p.m. or 12 a.m. Use noon or midnight.
- Do not use 8 a.m. in the morning (redundant) Use 8 a.m.
- Do not use o'clock with a.m. or p.m.
In Conclusion
Use “Good Evening” to greet someone before midnight and “Good morning” after midnight. And remember, you should NOT use “Goodnight” to greet someone; instead, use it to bid them farewell.
...
24-Hour Time Format.
| am/pm | 24-hour |
|---|---|
| 12am (midnight) | 00:00 |
| 1am | 01:00 |
| 2am | 02:00 |
| 3am | 03:00 |
12:10 pm is mid day. mid night 12:00am to 11:59am up to midday. after noon 12:00 pm to 11:59 pm up to mid night.
What does 12 am tomorrow mean? ›12:00AM is in the next day/at the start of the day. The previous day ended at the end of the last second of the previous day which was 11:59:59PM. The next second is the first second of the next day: 12:00:00AM to 12:00:01AM.
What time is 12 in regular time? ›| Regular Time AM/PM | 24-hour | Military Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00 a.m. | 10:00 | 1000 |
| 11:00 a.m. | 11:00 | 1100 |
| Noon 12:00 p.m. | 12:00 | 1200 |
| 1:00 p.m. | 13:00 | 1300 |
12.30 pm just after noon. 12.30 am is just after midnight. This makes sense, because the first is very early 'afternoon' while the second is very early morning.
Is 12/24 AM or pm? ›| AM | PM |
|---|---|
| Ante Meridiem* Latin for "before midday" | Post Meridiem* Latin for "after midday" |
| Midnight to Noon | Noon to Midnight |
| 24 Hour: 00:00 to 11:59 | 24 Hour: 12:00 to 23:59 |
happening very late in the evening or at night: We took the client to a late-night show near Piccadilly Circus.
What time of day is the middle of the night? ›Here are 7 important times or parts of the day in English. This is the middle of the night (00:00 hours). This is the middle of the day, also called "NOON" (12:00 hours).
What is the darkest time at night? ›
Midnight. This describes when the sun is farthest below the horizon, and corresponds with when the sky is darkest. Whenever there is no sunrise or sunset, such as near the poles in summer and winter, this describes the time of day when the sky is least bright.
What is the time between 12 midnight and 12 noon called? ›The time from a midnight to coming midday is called antemeridian. It is written in short as a.m. We say the time between midnight and noon is called a.m. Antemeridian (a.m.) and Postmeridian (p.m.) are Latin words which mean midnight to noon (a.m.) and noon to midnight (p.m.).
What is 12 am in 24 hour clock? ›Converting from a 12 Hour to a 24 Hour Clock
12:00 AM = 0:00.
Midnight and midday
Some will say midnight is 12am, and therefore that midday (or noon) is 12pm.
Re: 12 am = midnight or noon? Midnight is 12:00 pm. It is also 00:00 am. This is because it represents both the beginning and the ending of a set of numbers that runs from 00:00 to 12:00.
What is it called after 12 PM? ›AFTERNOON. This is the time from midday (noon) to evening. From 12:00 hours to approximately 18:00 hours. EVENING. This is the time from the end of the afternoon to midnight.
Is 12 00 am noon? ›Noon is neither a.m. nor p.m. Midnight is a part of the day that is ending, not the day that is beginning. When expressing times for “noon” and “midnight” it is best not to use numerals (12:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.). Avoid the redundant 12:00 noon and 12:00 midnight.
Why do we use 12 for time? ›This division reflected Egypt's use of the duodecimal system--the importance of the number 12 is typically attributed either to the fact that it equals the number of lunar cycles in a year or the number of finger joints on each hand (three in each of the four fingers, excluding the thumb), making it possible to count ...
Why does the day start at 12? ›The reason a new day starts at 12:00 goes back to ancient Egypt when the day was measured using sundials. The shadow on the face of a sundial tells the time, and the shadow depends on where the sun is in the sky. "When the sun is highest overhead and the shadow goes straight up to the top of the sundial, that's noon.
How do you write 12 noon? ›Lowercase noon and midnight. Do not use 12 noon or 12 midnight (redundant). Use noon or midnight.