Unlike the use of AM and PM dividing our day into halves, in Elsemar the day is divided based on the event that begins that quarter of the day:
| Earth Time | Elsemar Time | Conversational Time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12am | 0nf | Nightfall* | |
| 1am | 1nf | 1 at night | |
| 2am | 2nf | 2 at night | |
| 3am | 3nf | 3 at night | |
| 4am | 4nf | 4 at night | |
| 5am | 5nf | 5 at night | |
| 6am | 0db | Daybreak | |
| 7am | 1db | 1 in the morning | |
| 8am | 2db | 2 in the morning | |
| 9am | 3db | 3 in the morning | |
| 10am | 4db | 4 in the morning | |
| 11am | 5db | 5 in the morning | |
| 12pm | 0md | Midday, Noon | |
| 1pm | 1md | 1 in the afternoon | |
| 2pm | 2md | 2 in the afternoon | |
| 3pm | 3md | 3 in the afternoon | |
| 4pm | 4md | 4 in the afternoon | |
| 5pm | 5md | 5 in the afternoon | |
| 6pm | 0et | Eventide | |
| 7pm | 1et | 1 in the evening | |
| 8pm | 2et | 2 in the evening | |
| 9pm | 3et | 3 in the evening | |
| 10pm | 4et | 4 in the evening | |
| 11pm | 5et | 5 in the evening | |
| Other Examples (see below) | |||
| 11:45am | 5:45md | quarter 'til Noon | |
| 12:30am | 0:30md | half past noon | |
| 1:15pm | 1:15md | quarter past 1 in the afternoon | |
In the absence of modern time-keeping devices, the spoken time is usually stated in terms of the quarter-hour.
When giving times, phrases such as 'in the morning', 'at night', etc. might be omitted if the period of the day is obvious. For example, if you asked what time a restaurant opens for breakfast, you could naturally assume that "one o'clock" means "one one the morning". Likewise if it's clearly afternoon, responding, "it's 3 o-clock" would be fine.
Since many younger cultures find it easier to count the day as beginning at dawn, most human nations, especially those without strong ties to the elves, consider the day to begin with sunrise. Malatesta** nominally reckons the day as beginning at dawn, however they still adhere to the concept of each hour being 1/24th of a day.
As the days grow longer approaching summer, an extra hour is added to the morning and subtracted from the night, and an extra added to the afternoon from the evening. Likewise in winter the reverse occurs. Thus in summer it is possible for it to be 7 in the morning or afternoon, where as in the winter at the end of the 5th hour of the afternoon it becomes 1 in the evening rather than 6 in the afternoon.