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I first would like to say that I did read How should one say times aloud in 24-hour notation? but my question isn't answered there.

How do you say 0001 in military time?

  • oh one hours?
  • oh oh one hours?
  • oh oh oh one hours?
  • something even weirder?
Community
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v010dya
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    It would either be zero zero zero one or twenty four zero one. I don't think this is really an 'English' question though. – Frank Jun 25 '14 at 11:20
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    Why not? They're asking about an English spoken notation system. It's arguably a question of pronunciation, which is certainly on-topic – Lou Jun 25 '14 at 11:33
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    @LeoKing, it is not a question of pronunciation but military lingo/terminology does differ in service branches – Third News Jun 25 '14 at 11:51
  • @ThirdNews If it differs between service branches, then i'm even more interested in this than before. – v010dya Jun 25 '14 at 12:04
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    @LeoKing It's not an 'English' spoken notation, the author specifically asks for the 'military' notation that just happens (in this case) to use English. If tomorrow the military decide 0001 is to be called 'sharta plampher rinklit plocksen' then that is what every military man will call it with no regard whatsoever to the current state of the English language. ;) – Frank Jun 25 '14 at 12:06
  • This is a question of jargon not English per se. – Oldcat Jun 26 '14 at 00:25
  • @Frank - it can't be 'twenty four zero one'. Hours are zero to 23 hundred. – Oldcat Jun 26 '14 at 00:26
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    @Frank It *is* an English spoken notation, since it is the notation used in all English-speaking military, but not necessarily in any other military (it is not, as far as I've ever heard. used in Scandinavian military, for example—unless they're speaking English). Jargon limited to a certain field or subset of English is also English. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 26 '14 at 07:48
  • @Oldcat I agree 2359 is as late as it gets, but I added it as an or in the same way as balls is used (someone had a comment about balls for 00xx which is used in British military slang but it seems to have disappeared) because when talking casually twenty four is used even though the numbers don't ever get there. – Frank Jun 26 '14 at 08:08

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From wikipedia:

Leading zeros are always written out and are required to be spoken, so 5:43 a.m. is spoken "zero five forty-three" (casually) or "zero five four three" (military radio), as opposed to "five forty-three".

From a military forum:

Written: 0001 (1201AM) Verbalized: Zero oh oh One Hours (or Zero Zero Zero One Hours)

Kevin Workman
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    In fact, in formal military radio communications (at least within NATO), it would be rendered "figures: zero zero zero one", with a specified pronunciation of zero (ZEE-ro) and a slight pause between each of the numbers. Ambiguity, or the potential for it, is not tolerated. – bye Jun 26 '14 at 00:52