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Spanish Word: a.m., p.m.

Pronunciation: ah aymay, pay aymay

Translation: a.m., p.m.

Function: Abbreviation

In Spain, they say ‘buenas noches’ [good night] from dusk till dawn. In America it all depends on the clock, and changes to ‘buenos días’ at 12:01 a.m.

These abbreviations stand for “antemeridiano” [ante meridiem] y “postmeridiano” [post meridiem]. A change from the first to the second occurs at noon. In most Latin-American countries this change also indicates you should no longer greet with ‘buenos días’ [good morning] but with ‘buenas tardes´[good afternoon] instead.

Example:

Llegaremos a las 12 p.m.

Translation:

We will get there at noon

Tags: a.m., p.m., Spanish vocabulary, Spanish Word

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 11:22 am and is filed under Spanish vocabulary, Spanish word of the day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.