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.

0 dear.

To my mind it would be much better if the average TV reporter, for whom the main qualifications appear to be, 17 years old, female, very good looking, sexy body & a complete air head, were to have some idea about that of which they are talking.

I sometimes flinch when Zero is replaced by Oh, not that I have any linguistic preference but I suddenly remember a map reading lesson that was being given by the 2IC of my battalion.
He said "The next person that says Oh instead of zero in a map reference will double down to the corner and back (about 200 yards one way) and with his rifle held over his head".

I almost said it a couple of times but one of my mates beat me to it.

When he got back it was apparent that the running down the hill wasn't hard but coming back certainly was.

Oh was acceptable at other times,.3Oh3 etc., but not in map references nor in wireless transmissions.

What a beauty IS MISE, I never thought of it before ? The Lee Enfield .3zero3 fantastic !

I must admit to being pedantic about this. Many decades ago as a trainee surveyor, I was under the tutelage of a particularly pedantic surveyor who bashed the "zero" not "oh" thing into me. numbers were our game. It's stuck and I forever find myself correcting others, inadvertently, all the time, from pure habit... but like picking your nose in public, it's not a good habit.

On the scale of things to worry about, it's not even measurable :)