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.
Saying “O” instead of “Zero”, which I say at least a million times in my life, saves me a million syllables worth of time I can use for other things - like hiking, reading Tolstoy, or enjoying the great taste of Charleston Chew.
They used to call them ‘oughts’, maybe it’s an ‘oh’ for oughts?
It’s shorter than saying zero and it’s only ever used where context makes the it obviously not the letter. Also, almost all of the other digits are single syllables too. Seven is arguably (I’m no linguist) the only other multi-syllable digit and I think it gets a pass because it’s barely more than a single syllable unless you emphasize it.
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.
It’s pronounced ’o as a contraction of zero.
