I noticed that I and Alexa say “six ‘oh’ five a m”, but is that the correct way of saying the time? Specifically the “oh” part?
Kind of like when speaking out a phone number, how we might say “my number is one two three, six ‘oh’ six…” but really, that’s not an “oh” like the letter O even though it looks like an O, but everyone knows the person is saying “six zero six”, which is the proper way of saying that.
Edit: thanks for all the answers everyone! This was just pure curiosity for me but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses and learning some new things!
Five past six is what they taught me in English lessons back in the day :) that is the “proper” Way to say it in British English.
01-29 minutes are past the hour, 30 is half past the hour, 31-59 are to the hour (ex. 20 minutes to 7).
You could also be a smart ass and say it in US military style - oh six hundred and five.
I believe you only say the hundred if the time ends in 00
Yeh, it would probably be “oh six oh five” for us military time.
They pronounce the leading 0.
And with numbers in general, I think you only say the “and” if it’s “and one”. 605 would be “six hundred five”, I think.
Generally speaking US military time vernacular never uses the word “and” because it’s superfluous and confusing.
The idea is to condense the information into the smallest transmissible unit possible while eliminating any ambiguity.
“Oh six oh five” would be how you say it. The leading “oh” is to disambiguate a transmission dropout or interference with “sixteen.” It adds a checksum bit, if you will.