Why do British people say Zed?

The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. This gave rise to the Old French “zede”, which resulted in the English “zed” around the 15th century.

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Do British people say zed instead of Z?

Zed is widely known to be used in British English. But it's also used in almost every English-speaking country. In England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, India, Canada (usually), and New Zealand, Z is pronounced as zed.

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Why do Australians say zed?

In most English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom, the letter's name is zed /zɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta (this dates to Latin, which borrowed Y and Z from Greek), but in American English its name is zee /ziː/, ...

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Do English people say zed?

Zee is the American way of saying the letter z. Zed is the British way. Neither is right or wrong, and nobody is ignorant for pronouncing z the way they do. The zed pronunciation is older, and it more closely resembles the Greek letter, zeta, from which the English letter is derived.

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Why do Americans say Z instead of zed?

It did, after all, come first. Much of our modern alphabet comes directly from the Greek alphabet, including a letter, that looked just like our “Z,” that the Greeks called “zeta.” “Zeta” evolved into the French “zede,” which in turn gave us “zed” as English was shaped by Romance languages like French.

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Why do Brits say Zed?

45 related questions found

Why do British people say mum?

The short answer is that the two nations do speak different dialects of English. Additionally, neither the use of language nor the use of these different dialects is bound by distinct geographical borders. This is why 'mum' and 'mom' show up in other parts of the world outside of USA and the UK.

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Why do British people say maths?

The UK version is more logical. Math is an abbreviation of mathematics, which is a count noun in British English because there are different types of maths (geometry, algebra, calculus, etc.) and a mass noun that happens to end in an 's' in American English (like gymnastics in both dialects).

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Why do British people say leftenant?

According to military customs, a lower ranking soldier walks on the left side of a senior officer. This courtesy developed when swords were still used on the battle field. The lower ranked soldier on the "left" protected the senior officers left side. Therefore, the term leftenant developed.

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Why do Australians say Oz?

People from Australia call their homeland “Oz;” a phonetic abbreviation of the country's name, which also harkens to the magical land from L. Frank Baum's fantasy tale.

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Why do Australians say eh?

In the course of conversation the tag "eh" is often used merely to check that the person you are talking to is listening and following what you are saying. A mere prefunctory "Yeah" is all that is required in response. Thus the questioning force of "eh" is reduced.

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Do they say aye in Australia?

There are a few things you will notice straightway when you talk to Australians (or Aussies for short). First, they tend to add the word “aye” to many sentences – but don't worry about that, it doesn't really mean anything. Secondly, they LOVE to use slang. Lots and lots of slang.

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When did zed become Zee?

Zee, on the other hand, first appeared in print in a British language textbook—Thomas Lye's New Spelling-book—in 1677. The name zee itself is thought to have originated as nothing more than a dialect variation of zed, probably influenced by the regular bee, cee, dee, ee pattern of much of the rest of the alphabet.

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Why do Americans say colonel?

“Colonel” came to English from the mid-16th-century French word coronelle, meaning commander of a regiment, or column, of soldiers. By the mid-17th century, the spelling and French pronunciation had changed to colonnel. The English spelling also changed, and the pronunciation was shortened to two syllables.

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Why is there an R in colonel?

The French word "coronel" is derived from the Italian word "colonnello." When the French borrowed the word, however, they found it difficult to pronounce. In an effort to ease the pronunciation problem, they changed the first "l" sound to an "r" sound.

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Do Australians say math or maths?

Math is the preferred term in the United States and Canada. Maths is the preferred term in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and other English-speaking places. There's no real logical explanation as to why math became preferred in some places while maths was elsewhere.

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Why do Brits say Guv?

(slang) A contraction of "governor", used to describe a person in a managerial position e.g. "Sorry mate, can't come to the pub, my guv'nor's got me working late tonight". Heard mostly in London.

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Why do Australians say maths?

It is simply a historical thing. Then people started saying one version or the other, and "math" took hold in the US while "maths" took hold in the UK. Today different countries use one style or the other. Australians mostly say "Maths", Canadians mostly say "Math".

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What is a cuppa in the UK?

noun. cup·​pa ˈkə-pə chiefly British. : a cup of tea.

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What is the British version of mommy?

Certainly if you're in the US, your mother is your “mom” – short for “mommy” and in the UK, Australia and New Zealand it's “mum” – shortened from “mummy”.

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Why do British people say love?

British people call people love or 'luv' as it is sometimes spelled in its short form in exactly the same way as Americans would call someone honey or 'hon' for short. It is just an informal form of language used in certain walks of life and is something people have just grown up with.

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How did zed become Zee?

The earliest citation for zed dates to 15th-century Middle English: “zed, which is the laste lettre of the a-b-c.” The pronunciation zee is a 17th-century variant of zed. The earliest citation is from a 1677 language textbook, A New Spelling Book by Thomas Lye, a Nonconformist minister and teacher in London, England.

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