Now I will discuss AM and PM. It is a 24-hour method that is quite often used in timetables in such like, but in this video, we will not discuss that. The 24-hour day is into two 12-hour sections normally on a normal clock. There is the morning section and there is the afternoon section. By looking at a clock phase, if the lighting was stable, we would not probably know unless we could look outside or something like that to tell whether it was morning or afternoon. So sometimes, the time might be written down with extra notes to mark the difference. To mark morning time, it might be written as 12AM or 12:00 A.M. and to mark down afternoons, it would be written down as PM. So we might say, 1PM or it might probably be written down as 1PM and this would clarify that it was one o’clock in the afternoon and not one o’clock in the morning! It would be too early to get up at that time in the morning, I think! Now, it is a good idea to matching the clock face into four quarters as shown here. There is a quarter mark at the 12, this is the all-clock mark. There is a quarter mark on the three, this is the quarter past mark, there is another quarter mark on the six, this is half past mark and there is a quarter mark on the nine, this is the quarter til mark. Notice that once you get past the six with the minute pointer, we start counting the minutes to the next hour. Again, I will show the time at five minutes gone past 12, so it is five past 12. Like we said, it was five past 12AM, it would be five minutes past midnight on the night, but if we said, PM, it would be five minutes past 12, just gone past noon. Now again, it is ten past 12. If we said, ten past 12AM, it would be 10 past twelve in the morning, but if we said ten past 12PM, it will be ten past twelve in the afternoon. Basically we use the same ways as before, so here is quarter of an hour, one on the quarter marks past twelve. So it is quarter past 12 and we could say or maybe written down as quarter past 12AM for morning time or quarter past 12PM for afternoon. Again we are on one of the quarter marks with the minute hand. In this case, it is half past mark. It is half past 12. If it was morning, it would be half 12AM, if it was afternoon, it would be half 12PM. Again, once the minute hand has gone past the six the half way mark, we start counting how many minutes it is to the next hour. So in this example, there are 20 minutes to five so it would be 20 to five AM or twenty to five PM. Here is another quarter mark position. There is a quarter of an hour. That is three five minute sections before the next hour of one o’clock, so it is quarter to one. So it is quarter to one AM which would be morning or quarter to one in the afternoon PM. Here, we see 6:55 or some people would say, five to seven. So it would be 6:55AM or five to seven AM or 6:55PM or five to seven PM. Now, we can see where some other confusion may occur. Just take your time and try to understand that it is just said in different ways but means basically the same time. If you find it difficult to understand, maybe you could use an old clock and try turning the pointers on it slowly to notice the minutes passing by and such like. Do not worry about this, telling the time is quite complex because sometimes, it is written down in different ways as to what it is spoken. Such as earlier, 6:55 is the same as five to seven. So it may be written down one way and spoken another and this can complicate things and confuse some people, but after this, you will soon get the hang of this.
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