Military Time Chart 0000 to 2330

Rule one: the minutes never change. The last two digits are ordinary minutes, 00 to 59. 1739 is 5:39 PM. It is not 5.39 of anything, there is no 1765, and nothing about the format touches the minute hand. If you can convert the hour you already have the whole time.

Rule two: subtract 12 from any hour of 13 or more. Hours 0000 through 1159 are the AM hours and the number is the one you already know — 0900 is 9 AM. From 1300 the hour runs past the 12-hour clock, so take 12 off it and add PM: 1300 → 1 PM, 1600 → 4 PM, 2100 → 9 PM. Going the other way, add 12 to any PM hour: 7 PM → 19 → 1900.

Two hours are worth memorising rather than calculating, because the rules land awkwardly on them. 0000 is midnight, which the 12-hour clock calls 12 AM, and 1200 is noon, which it calls 12 PM. Both are printed as 12 in civilian notation, which is exactly why they get swapped — the long version is on the 12 AM vs 12 PM page.

Saying it out loud follows the digits. 0600 is “zero six hundred”, 1600 is “sixteen hundred”, and 1645 is “sixteen forty-five”. On the hour, the word is “hundred”, never “o'clock”. The Spoken column above gives the exact form for every row.