When writing in English, you may have wondered how to represent hours, minutes, and seconds in the text.
This page explains how to include the time in an essay and how you can abbreviate hours, minutes, and seconds.
What Is the Symbol for Hours, Minutes, and Seconds?
The collective symbol for “time” is “T.” There are also individual symbols for hours (h/hr), minutes (m) seconds (s). These abbreviations are typically used when stating “durations of time” in writing. When writing an actual time or duration, you should use a colon to separate the hours, minutes, and seconds.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The symbols for hours minutes and seconds are “h” or “hr”, “m”, and “s.”
- When stating a length of time without symbols, you should use colons to separate the hours, minutes, and seconds. For example, “hr:m:s” – “04:54:22”
- It is more common to write the time as numbers with colons rather than abbreviating.
How to Write Hours, Minutes, and Seconds in a Sentence
If you want to include a reference for a time in a sentence, you can use the symbols “h” or “hr”, “m”, and “s.”
- The experiment lasted 60s, but it felt like a whole hr.
- His time in the marathon was 2:22:32.
- His time in the marathon was 2hrs, 22m, 32s.
- The journey from earth to the outer atmosphere takes approximately 8m, 30s.
Depending on what you are writing will determine whether to write the time as numbers or whether you need to be specific and mention the unit of time you are referring to.
As shown in the above examples, the most common time to use the time abbreviations is when representing lengths of time from sports, experiments, journeys, and events.
When Is It Appropriate to Use the Symbol for Time?
The symbol for time (T) is mainly used in math and physics because they involve the use of equations that often involve calculations of time.
You may also see the symbol for time used to represent the times of specific sports events such as marathons or races.
However, in a standard text that is not mathematical or scientific, it is more common to write the word “time” instead of using the symbol.
For example:
- His final T for the marathon was 3hrs, 32m, 24s.
- He completed the circuit in a T of 56m, 37s.
When Shouldn’t I Use the Symbol for Time?
If you are writing a standard text that doesn’t involve equations of calculations involving time, it is better to simply write the word “time” so there is no ambiguity.
Outside of mathematics and science, the symbol “T” may confuse some readers because it is not that common. Therefore, it is best to avoid using it unless you have a specific reason to do so.
Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here.
