An important contribution on a pressing social issue.

As an "O"ist myself, I maintain that calling 'nought' by the name of 'O' is a noble piece of cross-fertilisation and promotes understanding between the alpha and numeric communities.

How would the learned chap say too:

Much ado about naught!
Rhrosty.

It's a lot quicker to say O when reciting a long number ie mobile phone number. Apart from that, who cares?

The computer in my car accepts either "Oh" or "Zero", even though it has some difficulty with other numbers.

My big beef is with people who don't use punctuation marks or paragraphs.

David

Perhaps the author could have chosen a better example than 'O' and zero.

Many people have a poor grounding in English. Because they are unlikely to read anything outside of newspapers (now tabloid) and magazines, their continuing adult education depends on what the electronic media provide.

Once the national broadcaster modelled correct English pronunciation, grammar and usage. Instead, the ABC now takes pride in other things, but mainly political correctness - which has other priorities.