pm
part of speech
abbreviation (pm, p.m., PM)
meaning for a pupil
1) «pm» (from Latin post meridiem, "after midday") means the hours after 12 noon and before midnight: 3 pm is in the afternoon. tree →
2) «PM» (UK, Australia, Canada, etc.) stands for Prime Minister, the leader of the government. tree →
3) (informal, online) «PM» means a private message: "PM me". tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths, time problems use am and pm: from 10 am to 2 pm is 4 hours — you count across noon. 12 pm is noon (midday) and 12 am is midnight, which confuses many people. The 24-hour clock writes 3 pm as 15:00 — add 12 to the pm hour. In news, the PM gives speeches. Online, people send PMs. Phrases: «at 3 pm», «the PM», «send a PM».
examples
- School finishes at 3 pm. tree →
- The film starts at 7:30 pm. tree →
- From 11 am to 2 pm is 3 hours. tree →
- 4 pm on the 24-hour clock is 16:00. tree →
- The PM visited our town today. tree →
- Lunch is at 12 pm, which means noon. tree →
- Can you PM me the homework? tree →
- The shop is open 9 am – 5 pm. tree →
note
Written pm, p.m. or PM; lower case for time is common in the UK and Australia, «p.m.» in the US. Do not write «3 pm in the afternoon» (it repeats itself). Trap: 12 pm = noon, 12 am = midnight. For durations crossing noon, count to 12 then add the pm hours. To change pm to 24-hour time, add 12 (except 12 pm).
In the corpora
- In the UK the watershed is 9 pm: programmes not suitable for children are not shown on ordinary TV channels before then.
- At 11pm she had lost two more ranks, her eyes were stinging and she slept badly.
- Jayden told his squad his bedtime, and they moved the big 10 pm game to Saturday afternoons.
- "You picked pm, ya numpty!" ("numpty" is Scottish for a silly person).
- For any hour over 12, take away 12 to get the pm time: 15:30 is 3:30 pm, 20:00 is 8 pm.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pm» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.