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

submitted 1 week ago by SatyrSack@feddit.org to c/AskUSA@discuss.online

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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.

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[–] megane_kun@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks for answering. I am not Japanese, nor a Japanese speaker of any level, but I dabbled into the language a bit.

I've had this notion that 「零」 is akin to ‘null’ or ‘naught’ in English while 「ゼロ」 is more about the digit ‘0’. It seems logical to me, but if there's anything I've learned learning languages it is that languages are not always logical, sometimes not even making sense.

RE: 丸 IDK where I've heard 丸 being used for phone numbers but I also remember it being used that way.

[–] tanisnikana@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

But 零時半 gets used quite a bit, especially for people like me, who have no fucking restraint and don't go to bed on-time.

Like any language, inconsistencies abound everywhere.