Question

do you only use military time in formal and written french? what do i use for conversational french? like for 6:35 pm, would i say: six heures trente-cinq ou dix-huit heures trente-cinq?
merci beaucoup!

Answer 1

By "military time" do you mean the twenty-four hour clock? You will find that for train, bus, etc. times = in public announcements, such as timetables, with midnight as the zero hour.
00.20 = 12:20 A.M.
14 heures = 2:00 P.M.
20h. 45 = 8:45 P.M.

To tell time, for 6:35 p.m. = Il est sept heures moins vingt-cinq.

Sra (aka Mme)

Answer 2

If you don't want to use military time, make sure you say what time of day it is. For example: morning, afternoon, evening, night.