Why people say O or Oh for 0(Zero)

Question

Everytime I heard about this, from movies (most of them US movies), or online videos etc.. most people say "Oh" instead of Zero. Why? Because are they lazy :)

Suthish Nair · Answer

Don't say sorry, you can also post some good thread. :)

Hemant Kumar · Answer

Hi all, Sorry i thought that this is a technical forum.Thanks for giving good information. Have a nice day :-)

Vulpes · Answer

Another 'shortcut' is the verb 'recap' meaning to repeat in concise form. I remember years ago being told off by my boss for using this word in a technical report instead of the more formal 'recapitulate'. I didn't even realize at the time that 'recap' was an informal abbreviation of that word, but I do now :) Although I haven't had any similar problems with it, there's also the noun 'perk' meaning a fringe benefit. After using this word for many years, I discovered that it was actually an abbreviation for the formal word 'perquisite'. Now how many times you do you hear that word used in spoken (or even written) English? Not many, I suspect.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Yes, people like to take shortcuts. Suthish, you will enjoy The Hobbit books when you have a chance to read them. The author has a few paragraphs about the tendency for people to be in a hurry and say things very quickly. So people whose native language is English have a tendency to pronounce zero as if it is a letter. There are very many other shortcuts but I cannot think of very many now. One example is saying "perp" instead of perpretator. In some television shows they say unsub instead of unknown subject. I notice that in forums such as these that it is people of India that are more likely to say 2 and u instead of to and you. So it is all people that do things to save time and such in one way or another. Hemanth, we have to watch what forum that a discussion is put into. Since the current forum software "lumps" all questions and discussions togetehr in one page, it is easy to not realize that a discussion is in the "Coffee, Chai Lounge" or the "Fun and Jokes" forum. I don't know if the new software will work differently.

Mahesh Chand · Answer

Yes! Hemant, we can actually talk fun on these forums too. Sometimes we get bored too :)

Karthik Agarwal · Answer

Hi Suthish Nair, More over this 'O' came into picture from places like America and Europe i think. They always call zero as 'Oh' or 'O' instead of zero. They got accustomed to that may be bcoz of their predecessors.

Suthish Nair · Answer

Hemanth, our forum is not just a Tech Forum. Its more than that. Even we have s Fun Category available.

Suthish Nair · Answer

Yes nought means, the digit zero or '0'. So 'Oh'/'O' is a meaningless talk. :)

Vulpes · Answer

As Hemanth said, I think people sometimes say 'Oh' for zero because it looks like the letter 'O'. However, it's jargon rather than standard English. I do it myself and I sometimes say 'nought' as well, rather than 'zero'. Incidentally, there's nothing wrong with asking non-technical questions on the 'Coffee, Chai Lounge' forum, Hemanth :)

Hemant Kumar · Answer

Hi Suthish! Both looks same .But there would be some slight difference is "oh" will be written like this ('O').But where as the "Zero" will be written as '0'. Note:A request that please dont post this type of Questions as this is a Technical sharing forum.