I noticed that I and Alexa say “six ‘oh’ five a m”, but is that the correct way of saying the time? Specifically the “oh” part?

Kind of like when speaking out a phone number, how we might say “my number is one two three, six ‘oh’ six…” but really, that’s not an “oh” like the letter O even though it looks like an O, but everyone knows the person is saying “six zero six”, which is the proper way of saying that.

Edit: thanks for all the answers everyone! This was just pure curiosity for me but I really enjoyed reading everyone’s responses and learning some new things!

  • CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world
    31·
    1 year ago

    That “oh” does not stand for “o’clock”, it stands for zero. If you said “six-o-fifteen” (or any time without the leading zero for minutes) you’d be saying it wrong. We also don’t say the “oh” for zero the same way as the “o” in “o’clock” (the former rhymes with “owe” and the latter is a schwa).

    In English we can often say “oh” for zero, when it is part of a string of numbers. So when giving telephone numbers or addresses, for example, in addition to the time.

    • Deceptichum@kbin.social
      12·
      1 year ago

      We also don’t say the “oh” for zero the same way as the “o” in “o’clock” (the former rhymes with “owe” and the latter is a schwa).

      Um I certainly as fuck do, as does everyone else in my country. What the fuck other way are you going to pronounce ‘O’?