No Stupid Questions

The proper way is the way the person you are talking to will understand.

Five minutes past 6 in the morning. (what I would say)

Six oh five AM.

etc.

I'd typically say something like: "One billion, seven hundred and one million, sixty five thousand, one hundred seconds since the epoch."

"Five past 6"

But 6 oh 5 is also fine

I found this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KozLFLwhLac

And this other answer that goes into more detail on the Middle Ages part:

"Whereas the Latin alphabet has been used for English from the earliest times, the numerals are relatively late. In early Middle English there were words for one, two, three (etc) but there was no word for "zero", as the symbol hadn't yet arrived in England (from India, via Arabia and Italy), and even when the symbols did arrive, they were, at first, a rather specialist tool for calculation that neither the illiterate peasants, nor the literate clergy, would have had much use for. They were a device that allowed financiers to make calculations without the use of an abacus.

As literacy and numeracy became more widespread in the Early modern period there is an issue: What do we call "0"? There's no problem with "1" because we can just name the numeral after the number "one". But there is no number for "0"!

Some people use the technical term "zero" from Italian, ultimately from Sanskrit. But this is a foreign and strange word. Some people use the English word "naught", meaning "nothing". But there is another option. The symbol looks exactly like the letter O. So not having a better name, many people just used the name of the symbol that it looks like. This use is attested from 1600, but probably goes back long before that."

I have not checked the veracity of either source or answer, but it's definitely true that English speakers have been saying O for 0 for a very long time, in any context that isn't too confusing.

five (minutes) past six

Five past six

Five past six is what they taught me in English lessons back in the day :) that is the "proper" Way to say it in British English.

01-29 minutes are past the hour, 30 is half past the hour, 31-59 are to the hour (ex. 20 minutes to 7).

You could also be a smart ass and say it in US military style - oh six hundred and five.

Six-oh-five is not wrong.

Unless you’re in basic. Then I’m pretty sure it was zero-six-hundred-oh-five. (Unless I’m wrong. If it’s any consolation…. They were always going to yell at you.)

I'll give you a short answer as you've got a lot of detailed ones already: to a native British English speaker "six oh five a m" sounds completely normal. There are other ways to say it that sound equally normal.

i would say "Sechs uhr fünf" which translates to "six o'clock five". but if i was to speak english i would definetely say "six o' five" the "o'" might even stand for "o'clock"

I would likely say six oh five as would my wife and friends. We’re all American from different parts of the country, so I suspect this is a difference in British v American English.

yeah that's just gonna be a 6 am from me dawg, I'm not splitting hairs over 5 minutes

Not that you asked, but the thing that I have most issues with is the AM in that time. I think you should drop that and just count to 23 with the hours instead of only to 12. It always confuses me if 12am is noon or midnight. And it's superfluous anyways. We have enough numbers, no need to be stingy.

In phone numbers we can often mix oh and zero, but you'd very rarely (if ever) use zero in time. Perhaps in the military (or similar organisations): zero/oh six hundred hours. I'd naturally say oh.

When telling the time, I get my students to say: six oh five, three oh eight, five oh two, etc. The alternatives would be 'past' and approximations: five past six, and just after six.

Fem över sex.

Everyone in here saying “5 past 6”.

I’ve been saying “5 after 6” or “6 oh 5” my whole life. I’m from Canada & in my early 30s.

• 5 after X
• 10 after X
• 5/10 to X
• Quarter after X
• Quarter to X

Etc.

I call it Whiskey time.

The hour of six, and five minutes past.

Just after 6.

I say "six oh five," but with numbers, I say "zero" or "oh."

Six and five in the morning - Seis e cinco da manhã