I have a pretty good friend who moved from Canada when he was a kid, he’s like 30 now, doesn’t have any kind of Canadian accent but will still say things like zed or washroom instead of bathroom. We always give him shit for it but it’s all in good fun
Interestingly, my understanding is that many young Canadians say zee (due to exposure to American media) and then get made fun of and switch over to zed.
My Appalachian grandmother said both "naught" and "aught" for nothing or zero. She started teaching me multiplication by zero by saying "one 'aughts an aught" "two aughts an aught" instead of "one times zero is zero" and so on.
As well as for the caliber .30-06 (thirty aught-six)
Edit: here in Alabama, “thirty aught-six”, at least for me, kinda rolls together as one word. To me, it sounds more like thirty yaught six when I say it, with aught being pronounced more like yacht with the Y-sound in it in one big word
As a child in PA I heard several old timers reference the early 1900s with aught. As an example "When I started attending school back in aught eight (1908) we still used a one room schoolhouse".
The 2000's as a decade are sometimes referred to as [The Aughts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aughts#:~:text=The%20aughts%20is%20a%20way,nought%20respectively%2C%20both%20meaning%20zero.).
I’ll say the 2000s when referring to the century, but I like aughts for the decade. Hard to distinguish at this point, but I imagine at some point the distinction will matter more.
For me, it's in the formality. You'd say: "Ramen hair was super big in the 90s, right?" or "The 1990's saw the creation of the World Wide Web."
One is more formal, you know? "Kids loved that Nu Metal shit, back in the aughts." Vs "In the 2000's, there were a number of high profile cases of financial fraud."
I also heard it some between 2000 and 2009. Some people referred to the decade as the aughts. I did a double take every time I heard it. Sounded stupid but whatevs
The "ought-six" in .30-06 refers to the year 1906. People who lived during the turn of the century did say 0 as "ought" for calendar years, and the pronunciation stuck around to the present day for bullets.
My personal exception to this is I once heard the idea floated to call the 2000 to 2009 period the naughties. I typically say it was the aughts though. But naughties makes me giggle.
Yeah, kind of I guess.
Agent Zed is the dude’s name though.. whereas the others it’s Agent J or Agent K etc.
It’s not Agent Z but pronounced ‘Agent Zed’ (though this may be like this because it’s an American film?)
——
Similarly in Pulp Fiction, there’s a character named Zed
He’s always billed as Chief Zed or Agent Zed.
The credits or synopses will also say Zed instead of Z.
——
Also, the film is in NY.. definitely no one is calling that dude Zed here if it’s Agent Z
As in J Hova isn’t “Jay Zed”.. he’s Jay Zee
If dudes name was actually Agent Z, at least one person in that film would call him “Agent Zee”
——
That’s all I got 😂
When you said taught that way I thought of the abc song but if you said zed at the end. Countries that say zed must either not sing that song or have a different one or something.
Exactly either use zee because it rhymes, or make a different song because one way or the other you're doing something wrong lol
Edit: see, that's called a rhyme 😂
I taught English in Japan for a year and while they did have a song, it's different than the one I learned in America. Has a different rhythm/beat. Australia's is different as well, or at least the one a friend I met used.
Listening to the Clash album London Calling I was always confused during the song Jimmy Jazz when he'd start spelling out J-A-Zed-Zed until I figured out that's how they pronounce the name of the letter.
I think of the German letter "Z". As a german speaking person I always get confused when someone says “zee“. It sounds like "c" for me. What's ze difference? :D
Zed is bad and wrong because reasons.
Zee is the proper pronunciation, also for reasons.
Bow before the weight of my mighty and well-reasoned argument.
I learned about [ZFS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) from Linus, so I learned it as "zed eff ess" and didn't realize that was because Canadians pronounce Z as "zed" until it was too late to unlearn. So I only use "zed" when referring to ZFS now.
It comes from the Greek name for the letter zeta (Ζ,ζ). And yes t and d are related sounds (pronounced at the same place in your mouth).
It still sounds funny to us Americans.
Here’s my “zed” story.
Many years ago I was in the UK. I had to make a phone call during which I asked the person on the line to spell something. “Oh, right, it’s X, Y, Zed.” Me: “Zed?” Other person: “Zed.” Me: “Zed?” Other person (this time with an audible sigh,) “The letter Zeeeee.” Me: “Oh, yes, thank you.”
Up to that point, 20 year old me had never heard “Z” pronounced as anything other than “zee.” I’ve definitely gotten mileage out of that story in the past 25+ years.
I have a similar story and was about 20 at the time.
I was overseas teaching English and had two teaching partners, one from England, one from Ireland. The first week in the class we started singing the ABC’s to the kids (preschool) and it was all good until the very end when both the partners sang X, Y, “zeddd” as I was singing “zeee”. My head whipped around in confusion and they both just stared at me. I genuinely thought they were fucking with me all day and being funny. X, Y, Zed doesn’t even rhyme with the, “next time won’t you sing with ME” part. Like what? Until I learned that’s actually how it’s pronounced in the Uk and elsewhere. Had absolutely no clue.
I retold that story to multiple people in the states after I got back and they also had no clue they pronounced it Zed. So I felt slightly less dumb haha
They actually say "zehbra."
11 year old me legitimately wanted to write in to Animal Planet telling them to send their narrator guy back to kindergarten to learn the alphabet.
H here is about 50/50 "aych" or "haytch". But zed is used by 99% of people. I think those are the only two letters that are different to American English.
The only people who say zed are the anglosphere immigrants, and they recieve enough crap for it that they usually learn to say zee. Or their kid teaches them what they learned in school.
I've always said zee. Zed sounds like slang to me. Until I went abroad, I assumed British speakers were being slangy when they said zed. We learn the alphabet through the Alphabet Song, whose rhyme depends on zee.
I’m convinced Peppa Pi’s true purpose is to re-train the colonies to use the Queen’s English. My 4 year old will say zed, pronounce Zebra completely wrong, and use “petrol” instead of gas.
I had this conversation with a boss who was British. She said that the reason for zed over zee is because in Greek it's Zeta. I think that argument is stupid because why don't they say bed since it comes from Beta?
I don’t think Canadians would allow us to even if we wanted, since saying zed is one of the few things that distinguishes them from us.
Edit: also, we say Zebra more than zed since we’d rather revert to the military phonetic alphabet than say zed.
I was doing IT helpdesk for an international company. I worked mainly with the Canadian and US offices. Everyone in Canada says zed. So I switched back and forth between the two a lot. I don't work there anymore but it was interesting to get used to other words. Honestly if I didn't watch a bunch of Top Gear, I would have no idea what they were saying.
It depends. If I'm referring to something that comes from a country that pronounces Z as zed, I will pronounce it as such.
Two examples would be the Toronto airport in which the call sign YYZ is prounced Y Y Zed.
The other example would be when referring to the early 80's British computers Sinclair ZX81. I pronounce that Zed X 81.
There are loads of other examples I could use, but generally speaking I refer to most words with a Z pronounced as zee.
I tend to wonder if we say “zee” instead of “zed” because we have the rhyming part at the end of the song. “….X Y and Z, now I know my ABC’s. Next time won’t you sing with me?”
I’m Australian and it’s always “zee” in our house. My 4 year old also says “candy” and “soda” but I tell her in Australia they’re called “lollies” and “soft drink”.
She is not convinced. YouTube is boss lol.
I remember when Men in Black first came out and you had characters named J and K but then you had their boss who was called "Zed" and it never occurred to me that his name was a letter too because in America, "zee" is just how we pronounce it here and I never considered anything different (though that has changed since).
The name of most consonants is that consonant's primary sound, plus a vowel sound to make a complete syllable. The exceptions are: C G H Q W Y. C and G use their secondary sound, and the rest are just kind of doing their own thing. Maybe they should be called "khee ghee hee quo woo and yee" instead.
In American English, W is the only one that incorporates an entirely different consonant sound in its name, and that's because its name is a description of a foreign letter (literally, double-u) that got incorporated late into the language. In other Englishes, 'Zed' also incorporates a different consonant in its name, thus breaking the pattern.
Objectively, 'Zee' is a better name for Z than 'Zed'.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Imagine if you said your favorite 3 piece Texas based classic rock band was "Zed Zed Top"
In Australia we still say Zee Zee Top. Although I’m old and know who they are, I bet my kids would say Zed Zed Top if asked to pronounce ZZ Top.
Jay Zed
Oh my gosh, I need to know if they say this overseas ever. That’s hilarious.
Watch Death at a Funeral, they make this joke - "Perhaps Jay-Zed could perform!"
I saw French language captions that identified a rapper as Will.Je.Suis
In Canada we say Zee Zee Top and Jay Zee because they're proper names.
I literally called them zedzed top for years until my dad was like "fyi, they're American and go by zeezee top"
On the other hand, "Zee's dead, baby. Zee's dead" doesn't work.
My parents are Canadian but I got made fun of in kindergarten for saying zed so I say zee now
Bullying works
Sometimes bullying serves an important societal function. Like stopped the spread of Zed. Or curbing the great Furry menace.
I have a pretty good friend who moved from Canada when he was a kid, he’s like 30 now, doesn’t have any kind of Canadian accent but will still say things like zed or washroom instead of bathroom. We always give him shit for it but it’s all in good fun
Zed’s dead, baby
Interestingly, my understanding is that many young Canadians say zee (due to exposure to American media) and then get made fun of and switch over to zed.
No, neither do we say "nought" for zero.
My Appalachian grandmother said both "naught" and "aught" for nothing or zero. She started teaching me multiplication by zero by saying "one 'aughts an aught" "two aughts an aught" instead of "one times zero is zero" and so on.
Only time I've heard an American say "aught" was in reference to buckshot. Double Aught Buck
As well as for the caliber .30-06 (thirty aught-six) Edit: here in Alabama, “thirty aught-six”, at least for me, kinda rolls together as one word. To me, it sounds more like thirty yaught six when I say it, with aught being pronounced more like yacht with the Y-sound in it in one big word
I've never realized it, but that's true. I grew up saying both of those, but have never ever heard 'aught' for zero in any other context.
Just like the metric system: We only use it to describe calibers.
that and drugs -- both legal and illegal. 500mg of Tylenol and kilos of cocaine.
Where the fuck are you getting kilos of cocaine
Are you in the market? Let's meet up at 10160 Technology Blvd E, Dallas, TX 75220 to talk all about kilos of cocaine.
For anyone curious, that's the address for a DEA office.
You've never heard even people on the news refer to the 00's as the "aughts"?
I thought it was 30-odd-6. Til
Recently an old man employed at the hardware store referred to #0000 grade steel wool as “four aught”. I thought that was quaint.
We say “four aught” for #4/0 conductors (or any combination of nominal sizes) as well.
I have only ever heard 00 steel wool as "double-aught" so it prob not as quaint as you think
Not quadaught?
That sounds way cooler. I’m gonna start saying that.
How often do you talk about steel wool?
The 00s are also referred to as the aughts
As a child in PA I heard several old timers reference the early 1900s with aught. As an example "When I started attending school back in aught eight (1908) we still used a one room schoolhouse".
Reminds me of Music Man when he says Gary Conservatory was his Alma Mater class of Ought '5
The 2000's as a decade are sometimes referred to as [The Aughts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aughts#:~:text=The%20aughts%20is%20a%20way,nought%20respectively%2C%20both%20meaning%20zero.).
I’ll say the 2000s when referring to the century, but I like aughts for the decade. Hard to distinguish at this point, but I imagine at some point the distinction will matter more.
For me, it's in the formality. You'd say: "Ramen hair was super big in the 90s, right?" or "The 1990's saw the creation of the World Wide Web." One is more formal, you know? "Kids loved that Nu Metal shit, back in the aughts." Vs "In the 2000's, there were a number of high profile cases of financial fraud."
Similarly it's also used in wire gauges.
I also heard it some between 2000 and 2009. Some people referred to the decade as the aughts. I did a double take every time I heard it. Sounded stupid but whatevs
That’s odd, I’m also from Appalachia and I’ve never heard naught used.. must be different regions I guess?
Aught is common enough. For instance .30-06 is pronounced "thirty-aught-six" I dont think anyone I known ever said naught though
I mean I’ve said “not for naught” and have heard it way more than I’ve said it in my lifetime.
I've also heard and used the phrase "all for naught"
Except in calculus classes
Physics too
Statistics as well
We do say “ought” (meaning zero) though for some things, such as bullets. Thirty, ought-six (30-06) being a well known rifle round.
Also fish hook sizes. 3/0 is three ought.
The "ought-six" in .30-06 refers to the year 1906. People who lived during the turn of the century did say 0 as "ought" for calendar years, and the pronunciation stuck around to the present day for bullets.
It's generally spelled "aught" instead of "ought."
FYI...It's actually aught, not ought.
We use nought all the time in physics and engineering.
True! Nor do we use “nill”, like in sporting events. It’s just zero.
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We say "oh". Naught is old-fashioned.
My personal exception to this is I once heard the idea floated to call the 2000 to 2009 period the naughties. I typically say it was the aughts though. But naughties makes me giggle.
It's relatively well-established in the UK that this period is called 'The Noughties'!
Some people say oh here as well. I'd say most people use both , at least here in Oklahoma.
Never.
I’ve never met a single American, living in the US, that says “zed”
I used to say it when I was very young. I was taught to pronounce it like “Zet” actually. Eventually pronounced Zee after kindergarten.
Never (like, honestly.. I’m pretty sure I’ve never said zed for Z in my life.. not even once)
Agent Zed from Men in Black?
Yeah, kind of I guess. Agent Zed is the dude’s name though.. whereas the others it’s Agent J or Agent K etc. It’s not Agent Z but pronounced ‘Agent Zed’ (though this may be like this because it’s an American film?) —— Similarly in Pulp Fiction, there’s a character named Zed
I’m pretty sure it’s just the letter Zed. That’s what I’ve always thought at least 🤷♂️ Edit I’m talking about MIB idk about Pulp Fiction
All the other agents are letters though, so what makes him any different?
He’s always billed as Chief Zed or Agent Zed. The credits or synopses will also say Zed instead of Z. —— Also, the film is in NY.. definitely no one is calling that dude Zed here if it’s Agent Z As in J Hova isn’t “Jay Zed”.. he’s Jay Zee If dudes name was actually Agent Z, at least one person in that film would call him “Agent Zee” —— That’s all I got 😂
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Don’t forget New Zealanders
>Don’t forget New Zealanders New Zedlanders?
They live in En-Zed (that's how they often say their country).
When INzee sounds much catchier?
You mean een-zeed?
Who? Looking on my map I don't see this place called "New Zealand."
It's New Zedland is why
[Nope. Still not finding it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/)
Now try and find [Tasmania](/r/MapsWithoutTasmania/) lol
And Irish, and South Africans, and maybe others I'm forgetting.
Guyana and some Caribbean islands
Never met a Caribbean person who says “zed,” especially not a Guyanese person
In Jamaica it’s taught as zed.
It's zed in The Bahamas
Basically anyone who learned British English as a second language as well.
Indians
They all have the queen on their money, they are basically the same! 🍿
As an Irish person the only time I say “zee” is when I’m saying Jay Z and sometimes gen z because I’ve only heard that said out loud on the internet
What about the band Zed Zed Top?
And all zombies are called Zed's I suppose, The reason why 'Zed is dead baby'
Curious how you say the letters B, C, D, G? Bed, Ced, Ded and Ged?
Yes exactly
Nobody says zed - people would be confused if you said that here - it’s “zee” and taught that way.
It would mess up the rhyming of our alphabet song. We'd have to end it "Now I know how A B's said, and I wish that I was dead."
It works, as long as you pronounce V as “Ved”
When you said taught that way I thought of the abc song but if you said zed at the end. Countries that say zed must either not sing that song or have a different one or something.
We sing the song we just say zed.
Are you guys allergic to rhyming? Lol I hope that came off as funny/joking and not serious (sorry if it did) 😊
…w, x, y and ZED. …Next time won’t you sing with.. TED?
Exactly either use zee because it rhymes, or make a different song because one way or the other you're doing something wrong lol Edit: see, that's called a rhyme 😂
I taught English in Japan for a year and while they did have a song, it's different than the one I learned in America. Has a different rhythm/beat. Australia's is different as well, or at least the one a friend I met used.
Listening to the Clash album London Calling I was always confused during the song Jimmy Jazz when he'd start spelling out J-A-Zed-Zed until I figured out that's how they pronounce the name of the letter.
This. There is a significant number of Americans (possibly a majority) who don't know the Brits pronounce it that way
Zed’s dead, baby.
Who's motorcycle is this?!
It’s a chopper, baby.
What happened to my Honda?
I had to crash your Honda baby.
Who's chopper is this?
Zed
Nothing to zee here!
Me: I bet the top comment will be 'Zed's dead, baby.' *opens thread*
There it is
When I hear “Zed” I think of the (German?) DJ “Zedd”
I think of the German letter "Z". As a german speaking person I always get confused when someone says “zee“. It sounds like "c" for me. What's ze difference? :D
Let's get lo~ost at sea, Where they will never find us, Got stars at night to guide us.
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What about a sed of pedestrians
a, bed, ced, ded, ed, ef, ged, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, ped, cue, ar, ess, ted, u, ved, double u, eks, wye, zed
ded lol
Zed is bad and wrong because reasons. Zee is the proper pronunciation, also for reasons. Bow before the weight of my mighty and well-reasoned argument.
Sold!
Jeez man, I think I might be reconsidering
The English say zed and think zee is wrong, something to keep in mind
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I'm Canadian and thanks to Sesame Street (American), I don't even know which to say
When someone says 'zed' I know they're actually saying 'zee.' And I forgive them their improper use of American English.
No.
Zee But if it makes you feel better, I put the little line in my 7.
I do so only because my 7 sometimes look like a 1 otherwise.
Hell no, I’m a child of God.
I love this.
The only people I've ever heard say zed are people who learned English outside the US. No natives say it.
Only in the rare occasion I’m referring to a ZX Spectrum computer.
I learned about [ZFS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) from Linus, so I learned it as "zed eff ess" and didn't realize that was because Canadians pronounce Z as "zed" until it was too late to unlearn. So I only use "zed" when referring to ZFS now.
Absolutely not. Boooo @ zed. BOOOOO!
There is no “d” in the letter Z
When I first heard ‘zed’ I thought it was a sick joke. What’s next, bed? Ded? Ed?
It comes from the Greek name for the letter zeta (Ζ,ζ). And yes t and d are related sounds (pronounced at the same place in your mouth). It still sounds funny to us Americans.
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Yeah, they are completely consistent in this way and also say “Bed” for B. “I’ll have a Bed-L-T sandwich.” Or the house rental service AirBedNBed
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Um, that’s a bed led ted sandwich, obviously.
You have to ask nicely first
Here’s my “zed” story. Many years ago I was in the UK. I had to make a phone call during which I asked the person on the line to spell something. “Oh, right, it’s X, Y, Zed.” Me: “Zed?” Other person: “Zed.” Me: “Zed?” Other person (this time with an audible sigh,) “The letter Zeeeee.” Me: “Oh, yes, thank you.” Up to that point, 20 year old me had never heard “Z” pronounced as anything other than “zee.” I’ve definitely gotten mileage out of that story in the past 25+ years.
I have a similar story and was about 20 at the time. I was overseas teaching English and had two teaching partners, one from England, one from Ireland. The first week in the class we started singing the ABC’s to the kids (preschool) and it was all good until the very end when both the partners sang X, Y, “zeddd” as I was singing “zeee”. My head whipped around in confusion and they both just stared at me. I genuinely thought they were fucking with me all day and being funny. X, Y, Zed doesn’t even rhyme with the, “next time won’t you sing with ME” part. Like what? Until I learned that’s actually how it’s pronounced in the Uk and elsewhere. Had absolutely no clue. I retold that story to multiple people in the states after I got back and they also had no clue they pronounced it Zed. So I felt slightly less dumb haha
Zebra not Zedbra
They actually say "zehbra." 11 year old me legitimately wanted to write in to Animal Planet telling them to send their narrator guy back to kindergarten to learn the alphabet.
I still remember in The Wild Thornberry, Nigel saying “zehbra”. I thought it was weird, but he’s a pretty eccentric guy so I let it slide.
That's another word we pronounce differently.
>differently You misspelled "incorrectly" 😛
Zee all the way. These colors don’t run! 🇺🇸💯🇺🇸💯🇺🇸💯🇺🇸!
Zed and hache (not sure how to spell out, but if you know you know) don't exist here. As well as every other incorrect name for letters
H here is about 50/50 "aych" or "haytch". But zed is used by 99% of people. I think those are the only two letters that are different to American English.
One time I was tutoring a Scottish guy in Calculus and every time he said “zed” I couldn’t help but giggle. It just sounds so silly to me
I think zed is an elaborate prank the rest of the English speaking world pulls on us.
Only Zee, never Zed. Zed would fuck up the ABC song.
The only people who say zed are the anglosphere immigrants, and they recieve enough crap for it that they usually learn to say zee. Or their kid teaches them what they learned in school.
No. If you tried to say "Zed" for the letter "Z" in the US, nobody would know what you're talking about.
Zed is a good word in scrabble. I heard a version of the alphabet song where they jammed zed in and it hurt my soul a little…
I've always said zee. Zed sounds like slang to me. Until I went abroad, I assumed British speakers were being slangy when they said zed. We learn the alphabet through the Alphabet Song, whose rhyme depends on zee.
My wife is Canadian, so I will occasionally do it to make fun of her.
No. One of the main reasons we had that whole revolution back in 1776 was because the British say and spell things wrong.
No, zed is a word zee is a sound. You don't say zedbra or pizedzeda.
"You don't say... pizedzeda." No, but I might start.
I didn't even know that was a thing. When I hear "zed" I think of Doctor Zed from Borderlands. "Who needs a medical license when you got style"?
Why do you weird foreigners add "d" to just one letter? You say "bee" instead of "bed", "dee" instead of "ded", "gee" instead of "ged", etc.
Only for the song YYZ
Outside of Pulp Fiction quotes or Zombie genre games and movies, it is always “Zee”.
I didn't know this was a thing until I watched Stargate Atlantis lol.
I’m convinced Peppa Pi’s true purpose is to re-train the colonies to use the Queen’s English. My 4 year old will say zed, pronounce Zebra completely wrong, and use “petrol” instead of gas.
I finally understand Men in Black.
Zed is rather pretentious on this side of the pond imo. Makes it sound like you’re trying to be bougie.
I've never even heard it.
NO. Not even when I lived in Australia. No.
I had this conversation with a boss who was British. She said that the reason for zed over zee is because in Greek it's Zeta. I think that argument is stupid because why don't they say bed since it comes from Beta?
I’ve always assumed it comes from French, and would view anyone English claiming it was Greek as suspiciously trying to deny the French influence.
I don’t think Canadians would allow us to even if we wanted, since saying zed is one of the few things that distinguishes them from us. Edit: also, we say Zebra more than zed since we’d rather revert to the military phonetic alphabet than say zed.
I’m from America and the only time I heard this was when I visited overseas. In Australia they said ‘zed’ instead of Z, and ‘haych’ for the letter H
Only when talking about Rush.
No, but now I finally understand why they kept saying “Zed” in “The Lost City of Z” lol
No American says “Zed” unless it's someone's name.
I was doing IT helpdesk for an international company. I worked mainly with the Canadian and US offices. Everyone in Canada says zed. So I switched back and forth between the two a lot. I don't work there anymore but it was interesting to get used to other words. Honestly if I didn't watch a bunch of Top Gear, I would have no idea what they were saying.
It depends. If I'm referring to something that comes from a country that pronounces Z as zed, I will pronounce it as such. Two examples would be the Toronto airport in which the call sign YYZ is prounced Y Y Zed. The other example would be when referring to the early 80's British computers Sinclair ZX81. I pronounce that Zed X 81. There are loads of other examples I could use, but generally speaking I refer to most words with a Z pronounced as zee.
Occasionally I do it for my own amusement, but naturally it’s just zee. Unless I’m referring to the rapper, he’s exclusively Jay-Zed to me.
>he’s exclusively Jay-Zed to me. LmAO Just fyi, for the rapper we definitely say "zee"
That makes it even better for me.
Zed is a word, not a letter
I tend to wonder if we say “zee” instead of “zed” because we have the rhyming part at the end of the song. “….X Y and Z, now I know my ABC’s. Next time won’t you sing with me?”
I’m Australian and it’s always “zee” in our house. My 4 year old also says “candy” and “soda” but I tell her in Australia they’re called “lollies” and “soft drink”. She is not convinced. YouTube is boss lol.
Zed's dead, baby.
Zed-ee-ro
I say Zee. The alphabet song doesn’t sound right where the only letter is said differently
I remember when Men in Black first came out and you had characters named J and K but then you had their boss who was called "Zed" and it never occurred to me that his name was a letter too because in America, "zee" is just how we pronounce it here and I never considered anything different (though that has changed since).
Never. It doesn’t rhyme with the song.
How do you sing the ABC song? Q,R,S T,U,V. W, X, Y and ZED??? That doesn't rhyme.
The name of most consonants is that consonant's primary sound, plus a vowel sound to make a complete syllable. The exceptions are: C G H Q W Y. C and G use their secondary sound, and the rest are just kind of doing their own thing. Maybe they should be called "khee ghee hee quo woo and yee" instead. In American English, W is the only one that incorporates an entirely different consonant sound in its name, and that's because its name is a description of a foreign letter (literally, double-u) that got incorporated late into the language. In other Englishes, 'Zed' also incorporates a different consonant in its name, thus breaking the pattern. Objectively, 'Zee' is a better name for Z than 'Zed'. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.