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

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Both. The letter 'O' and the number zero look similar, and it's half the syllables making it easier when reading out a string of numbers. Like how saying "World wide web" is less syllables to pronounce than "www".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I usually pronounce www as "dub dub dub" if it is absolutely necessary to be spoken.

If that puts me on anyone's "to be punched" list, so be it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Is it okay if I say this?

j/k, I just really like that show and character:-)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

And in the trend of languages adapting to usage, saying "www" seems to have dropped off once browsers started automatically inserting it and making it the default prefix if another isn't used. Not that it isn't used, just far less.