AskUSA

170 readers

262 users here now

About

Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the USA. Please keep in mind:

!politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world - politics in our daily lives is inescapable, but please post overtly political things there rather than here
!flippanarchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com - similarly things with the goal of overt agitation have their place, which is there rather than here

Rules

Be nice or gtfo
Discussions of overt political or agitation nature belong elsewhere
Follow the rules of discuss.online

Sister communities

Related communities

founded 1 week ago

MODERATORS

OpenStars@discuss.online

admiralpatrick@discuss.online

Why do you say the letter "O" when you mean the digit "0"? (feddit.org)

submitted 5 days ago by SatyrSack@feddit.org to c/AskUSA@discuss.online

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Examples:

One oh two Main Street
Four oh seven PM
Biology one oh one
Eight six seven, five three oh nine
Four oh four: Not found

Not just a US thing, so I hope this is okay to ask here. I have just never encountered this is any language other than English. Is it simply that O and 0 look similar, and that "oh" has fewer syllables than "zero"? I have not heard a good explanation from coworkers who I've asked.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Is it simply that O and 0 look similar, and that “oh” has fewer syllables than “zero”?

They look aimilar and in some sentences it just rolls off the tongue better '3 oh 5' for the time of day for example just sounds 'better'. A lot of english wording seems to favor sounding 'better' when it is less rigidly structured. It might be rrlated to how english as a language loves to incorporate words and phrasing from other languages so frequently that being inconsistent ends up being a feature as it allows for easy additions.