Time Formats in Belgium

January 26, 2011 6:25 AM

I'm curious about the custom in Belgium of representing the time with what appears to be a lowercase "u" in place of the colon or full stop (14u38, rather than 14:38).

Is this related to the French custom of writing the time as 14h38 and if so what word (in what language) is being represented by the letter "u"? If it's not an abbreviation (or not a "u"), what function does the symbol serve? Is it common usage? Can someone familiar with the region help explain the context?

posted by Jeff Howard to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Best answer: In Flemish/Dutch, the word for "hour" is "uur." So 14u38 = 14h38 = 14:38
posted by texano at 6:29 AM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The Dutch/Flemish word for "hour" is "uur", so yes you're right it's exactly the equivalent of the "h" for "heure" in French.
posted by nowonmai at 6:30 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

And yes, it's common usage.
posted by Namlit at 6:40 AM on January 26, 2011

hōrā, hōra, hore, ore, ure, heure.
posted by Akeem at 7:24 AM on January 26, 2011

It's not only common, it's standard, at least in French (Canada and France): Écriture de l'heure. I imagine there's a similar Flemish standard.
posted by fraula at 7:31 AM on January 26, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks everyone!
posted by Jeff Howard at 2:17 PM on January 26, 2011