Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[sabrinawaiz]

Dear teachers,

When someone is giving out their phone numbers aloud, what is the basic rule of using "Zero" or "O" for the digit "0"?

Can anyone tell which way a native speaker is most likely to pronounce the phone number 0125-2186065?

1. Zero-One-Two-Five-Two-One-Eight-Six-O-Six-Five

2. O-One-Two-Five-Two-One-Eight-Six-O-Six-Five

3. Zero-One-Two-Five-Two-One-Eight-Six-Zero-Six-Five

Number 1 sounds good for me. Do you agree? but I don't have any explanation but "Six-O-Five" sounds better than "Six-Zero-Five"

Thank you in advance,

Sabrina

[CP]

I'm not sure you will find much agreement among native speakers, since either "zero" or "oh" might be used to mean zero when saying any number aloud. Only when there are both numbers and letters in a series (such as a vehicle identification number) are people likely to be careful about calling 0 "zero" and calling O "oh."

In the Los Angeles area, there is a spur of the Interstate 5 freeway called the 605 Freeway. No one says "six zero five"; it is the "six oh five" freeway to everyone. But if "605" were part of a telephone number, you might hear it either way.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Philo Kevetch]

You might hear 'zero' instead of 'o' when there are two or more consecutive zeroes in a phone number.

320-6000 --> three-two-o-six-zero-zero-zero

'zero' is often used when it is the first number in a series
as in your examples #1 and 3

[sabrinawaiz]

Dear CP & Philo Kevetch,

Thank you so much for your responses.

Philo Kevetch, We hear 007 pronounced as Double-O-Seven [Double-Oh-Seven].
Is this because 007 does not refers to a phone number? (007 starts with a zero and contains two consecutive zeros.)

[Lorikeet]

[CP]

James Bond, known as Agent 007, or just 007, is the fictitious heroic spy / bon vivant / rogue created by Ian Fleming. He was British. The British tend to say "double O" sometimes to mean "zero zero" and "triple O" for "zero zero zero." They also say "double" when letters are doubled. They would spell "spell" S-P-E-double L, while we Americans would say S-P-E-L-L.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb