Do Switzerland and the UK have 'different time' or 'different times' (the time zone each is in)?

Question

'Time' is

'the system of recording hours used in different parts of the world'

and is uncountable, says the Cambridge Dictionary Online.

Really?!

Should it be

'Switzerland and the UK have different time.'

then, or rather

'Switzerland and the UK have different times.'

, which sounds more correct… ?

I can't count the number of times that a dictionary definition was incompletely or inaccurately stated. — Canis Lupus, Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 17:36
Switzerland and the UK are in different time zones. (As Ricky suggests.) Of course, in earlier times each city had it's own time reference, unrelated to others. — Hot Licks, Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 18:05
This usage of time (always with some kind of modifier before it, like Greenwich Mean Time and daylight saving time in the dictionary examples) is indeed pretty much always singular. I’m not sure I quite agree that it’s uncountable as such, but it requires a very contrived context to be pluralised. Your example is not such an example, since time(s) would not be used at all in idiomatic English there: time zones would. But you could make one up: “Yesterday I was on London time; two hours ago I was on Beijing time; now I’m on NZ time. All these… times are messing with my head!” — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Commented Apr 4, 2017 at 18:21

Ricky · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-04 17:45:13Z

3

Time is a property of space.

The standard way of pointing out the difference would be

Switzerland and the U.K. are in different time zones.

The informal way of explaining why Kevin and Linda look a bit groggy would be

They're still on Swiss time. Give them a a day or two to adjust.

answered Apr 4, 2017 at 17:45

Ricky

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