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[Couleurs]

American English

C = "cee"

Z = "cee"

makes perfect sense

They're not pronounced the same in American English; do sap and zap sound exactly the same when you say them?

 

[StudioTan]

Why would you listen to the British on how to pronounce anything

They pronounce non-existent r's and discard the ones that do exist.

Boston is a place that exists though.

 

[Stet]

They're not pronounced the same in American English; do sap and zap sound exactly the same when you say them?

The idea isn't that they're pronounced the same. The idea is that if you're spelling something, it's easy to mishear them.

 

[Dragon]

The idea isn't that they're pronounced the same. The idea is that if you're spelling something, it's easy to mishear them.

That's what the phonetic alphabet is for .

 

[Stet]

That's what the phonetic alphabet is for .

Strangely enough, the phonetic alphabet didn't exist when the modern alphabet was created.

 

[matrix-cat]

Not to blow anyone's minds here, but we all say the things we say the way we say them because that's how we grew up saying them. As an Australian, I'll say 'Zee' if I'm talking about Jay Z or ZZ Top, or whatever dumb zombie thing is being be-suffixed with 'Z', but otherwise it's 'Zed'.

Calling maths 'math', or Craigs 'Kregg', or making the same noise for 'ah', 'aw' or 'oh', sounds awful to my ears, but there you go.

 

[Dragon]

Strangely enough, the phonetic alphabet didn't exist when the modern alphabet was created.

Not sure what that has to do with my post, but appreciate the info!

Not to blow anyone's minds here, but we all say the things we say the way we say them because that's how we grew up saying them. As an Australian, I'll say 'Zee' if I'm talking about Jay Z or ZZ Top, or whatever dumb zombie thing is being be-suffixed with 'Z', but otherwise it's 'Zed'.

Calling maths 'math', or Craigs 'Kregg', or making the same noise for 'ah', 'aw' or 'oh', sounds awful to my ears, but there you go.

Mathematics = math

Saying maths is fucking weird.

Seriously, I'd love to hear a commonwealth speaker try to make me understand "Derby" darby.

 

[Zakalwe]

All these Americans attempting to tell us how our language should be spoken made me almost choke on my crumpet and distracted me so much I let my pot of tea brew for too long and now it's ruined.

Despicable.

 

[MrChom]

In England it's prounounced sheer. But LotR is written by a British author so it was always weird to hear the Shire instead of the Sheer or whatever. Don't know if that makes sense.

I also say Worcestershire sauce with it pronounced shy-er.

Depends on the region, and the context. If you were to say "The Shire" or "The county shires" it would be Shy-er. As a word ending it changes between Sheer and Shuh and almost anything in between depending on the locale. The big ones for Americans are usually the midlands counties. Worcestershire (Wuh-stur-shuh), Warwickshire (Woh-rick-shuhm and Leicestershire (Leh-stuh-shuh)...

 

[Sephzilla]

It's part of Lord Zedd's plan to take over Angel Grove!

 

[AcademicSaucer]

So why not call A alpha, B beta, etc.? Z is an English letter, not Greek.

Latin alphabet

 

[matrix-cat]

Mathematics = math

Saying maths is fucking weird.

Where does the 's' go, though? Refrigerators becomes fridges, not fridge. Mathematics. Maths.

 

[amanset]

Where does the 's' go, though? Refrigerators becomes fridges, not fridge. Mathematics. Maths.

See also:

Statistics -> Stats

So at University I studied in the Department of Maths and Stats. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't Math and Stat in the US.

 

[The Albatross]

I'm not going to accept any reprimand on following patterns from a people who don't use the metric system.

The US uses the metric system for nearly any important weight or measure. Colloquially, though, we typically fall back to imperial because we're used to it.

 

[Dragon]

Where does the 's' go, though? Refrigerators becomes fridges, not fridge. Mathematics. Maths.

Don't want to speak for all us Yanks but isn't mathematics a singular noun? In any event, maths and math are both correct so *shrug*

See also:

Statistics -> Stats

So at University I studied in the Department of Maths and Stats. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't Math and Stat in the US.

Don't know that statistics is a singular noun *shrug*

 

[BGBW]

You just learn the one math in the American education system.

 

[amanset]

Don't know that statistics is a singular noun *shrug*

Statistics, meaning a bit of information, is plural.

Statistics, meaning the discipline of studying statistics, is singular.

 

[Branduil]

Where does the 's' go, though? Refrigerators becomes fridges, not fridge. Mathematics. Maths.

Mathematics is basically a mass noun. You don't say "I studied 5 mathematics" or "I only learned one mathematic today." If someone points at a chalkboard with math equations on it and asks what it is would you say "these are maths"?

 

[MrCunningham]

It has always been "zed" to me.

 

[Red Liquorice]

Never heard anyone call it "Dragonball ZED", even back in the day when all people had access to were the import video games or VHS tapes, I think people knew it was "Zee".

You probably need to get over it OP, there's a million little pronounciation differences all over the English speaking world, I wouldn't let it worry you.

 

[Alienous]

I don't know. Dragon Ball Z in my childhood broke that part of me, I think. I pronounce it 'Zee', usually, despite being properly English about everything else.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

It's "Zet" in German so....I don't know where I was going with this

 

[Lagamorph]

Because that's the correct way of saying it?

Why do Americans incorrectly pronounce it as "Zee"?

 

[jstripes]

It's Zed in good old Canada but things like Jay-Z and DragonBall Z are brand names so obviously we still say them properly. Anyone who does otherwise is just being a dick (or is somehow unfamiliar with those things)

I call Jay-Z Jay-Zee, but Dragon Ball Z is Dragon Ball Zed.

I've been calling it that since before it was localized. Because that's what it's called.

doragonbaru zetto

 

[DECK'ARD]

Mathematics is basically a mass noun. You don't say "I studied 5 mathematics" or "I only learned one mathematic today." If someone points at a chalkboard with math equations on it and asks what it is would you say "these are maths"?

Statistics -> Stats
Mathematics -> Maths

As an abbreviation maths makes more sense, and we won't accept arguments regarding collective nouns from a country that pluralises Lego.

 

[MrChom]

Statistics -> Stats
Mathematics -> Maths

As an abbreviation maths makes more sense, and we won't accept arguments regarding collective nouns from a country that pluralises Lego.

YES.

LEGO company
LEGO sets
LEGO bricks
LEGO pieces....

LEGOs implies multiple companies and that's just silly, frankly.

 

[Ray Wonder]

There are tons that have the -ee sound though.


bee
cee
dee
e
gee
pee
tee
vee
zee

 

[theowne]

Technically they pronounce it Duragonbouru Zetto. Feel free to say it like that if you want.

The point went over your head. They call it "Zetto" because it's the Japanese way of saying "Zed". In otherwords, technically the Japanese decided to use the "Zed" pronounciation, not "zee", so that's how DBZ was originally pronounced.

By the way, my assumption was always that it was "zed" to avoid confusion with C which sound very close.

 

[amanset]

There are tons that have the -ee sound though.


bee
cee
dee
e
gee
pee
tee
vee
zee

And about as many that don't.

 

[A Pretty Panda]

We should all be able to agree that zee is the superior and more logical way to pronounce Z. Also, "Dragonball Zed" just sounds stupid.

Well you're wrong

 

[Walpurgis]

I don't know. Dragon Ball Z in my childhood broke that part of me, I think. I pronounce it 'Zee', usually, despite being properly English about everything else.

Me too. They called it Dragon Ball Zee in the theme song and the narrator always called them "the Zee warriors" so I just went with that. However, I call that zombie game, H1Z1, H1Zed1 because it sounds way better (and closer to H1N1) than H1Zee1.

 

[Ray Wonder]

Me too. They called it Dragon Ball Zee in the theme song and the narrator always called them "the Zee warriors" so I just went with that. However, I call that zombie game, H1Z1, H1Zed1 because it sounds way better (and closer to H1N1) than H1Zee1.

Day-Z sounds like daisy when saying it like that too. I'm american but I would rather say Day-Zed if I cared enough lol.

 

[Toxi]

I was flabbergasted when I heard someone refer to World War Z as "World War Zed".

 

[Skellig Gra]

And about as many that don't.

How many of those end in "ed"?

 

[amanset]

How many of those end in "ed"?

The point is that there's no hard and fast rules, so trying to apply one is a bit silly. There's just as good arguments for calling it "ez" or "zay".

 

[Lo_Fi]

The Zed vs. Zee thing fascinates me. I didn't even know other people pronounced it Zed until I was 19. Fascinating to me that America is so isolated/insulated in so many weird ways. Crazy.

 

[Ray Wonder]

The point is that there's no hard and fast rules, so trying to apply one is a bit silly. There's just as good arguments for calling it "ez" or "zay".

If the debate was between Zed, and Zay, I would say Zay.

 

[Shadow2222]

"Oh his name Zed? Okay, got it."

Hmm, doesn't have the same ring to it.

 

[Skellig Gra]

The point is that there's no hard and fast rules, so trying to apply one is a bit silly. There's just as good arguments for calling it "ez" or "zay".

There are better arguments for both of those over zed.

 

[PSqueak]

Why is W said UU when it looks like VV? Ancient mysteries.

Some spanish speaking countries do call it double V, not mexico tho, so i wouldn't know which, i just know i have seen comercials listing websites saying it "double V".

 

[amanset]

Some spanish speaking countries do call it double V, not mexico tho, so i wouldn't know which, i just know i have seen comercials listing websites saying it "double V".

In Sweden they just treat W and V as the same thing. Hell, back in the days of phone books all the W and V names would be mixed together.

People often refer to web addresses as "vee vee vee punkt ...", which got really stupid when they were referring to Vägverket's website (www.vv.se). No wonder they changed their name to Trafikverket.

 

[RK9039]

All these Americans attempting to tell us how our language should be spoken made me almost choke on my crumpet and distracted me so much I let my pot of tea brew for too long and now it's ruined.

Despicable.

Lmao nearly choked up on my Monster Munch reading that.

Silly Americans trying to teach us Inglishck.

 

[jstripes]

The Zed vs. Zee thing fascinates me. I didn't even know other people pronounced it Zed until I was 19. Fascinating to me that America is so isolated/insulated in so many weird ways. Crazy.

While I'm a bit shocked that you didn't even know about the zed pronunciation until you were 19, America tends to consume media primarily from America, so I guess I'm not surprised.

 

[StudioTan]

How many of those end in "ed"?

None. How many letters end in "ch"? The same amount that end in "ed".

 

[lastplayed]

Enzed sounds way better than Enzee.

 

[itwasTuesday]

350zed
I dunno, I like it.

 

[mattwhite924]

Something interesting to add to the discussion. If this chart is accurate (I pulled it off Wikipedia, so IDK how reliable it is, and it also doesn't count non-native speakers), then it seems that even though more places use "zed", more people use "zee"

 

[BibiMaghoo]

Because it is taught in schools as part of a tune to remember the alphabet. It ends in (phonetically), 'ex', 'why', 'zed'.

 

[Brokun]

Because it is taught in schools as part of a tune to remember the alphabet. It ends in (phonetically), 'ex', 'why', 'zed'.

That doesn't make sense. If you follow the rhythm of the ABC song it's A to GEE, H to PEE, Q to VEE, W to ZEE.

 

[Raven Prime]

Because most, if not all, West European languages pronounce it that way (or similarly). English being a Germanic language is no different.