María llegó a las 11h35 de la noche
A teacher once told me that this was a preferred method of writing time in much of the Spanish-speaking world. I've only seen this used once, though... Almost always I've seen time written the same way I grew up writing it, with the colon: 11:35. Is it perhaps a European thing, or does it just appear to be more common to me because most of the people I've seen writing in Spanish have had more cross-cultural contact? Do any of the native speakers here use this, or have seen it? Where and how is it used? Thanks!
1 Answer
I've done a little quick research for you on the web. You can also search the Q&A section here for "telling time". This is my educated guess. When I was in France many years ago timetables for trains and other transportation were written using a "24-hour" designation with the "h" replacing the ":" as you have. However your would never see the equivalent of "de la noche" in the written form because it would be 23h35 in French. I am assuming that the same convention is followed in Spain, and perhaps Latin American countries. Regrettably I did not notice this in Colombia, SA when I was there a few years ago.
Generally I think in Latin America they would write time as we do with the colon and use AM and PM for clarification. A native or inhabitant of a Latin American country may confirm that.
