# Are Americans really unaware the letter "Z" is pronounced "Zed" in the UK/Australia/NZ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 3, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399 "2013-05-03T09:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/81 "2013-05-03T22:37:13Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Everyone should use ccyymmdd. What is ccyy? Does the cc stand for century? If so I mostly agree with you but I really like to have delimiters between the year month day 2013/04/03. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/82 "2013-05-03T22:39:07Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Everyone should use ccyymmdd. What is ccyy? Does the cc stand for century? If so I mostly agree with you but I really like to have delimiters between the year, month and day 2013/04/03. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/83 "2013-05-04T00:32:59Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Everyone should use ccyymmdd. What, are you Welsh? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/84 "2013-05-04T01:40:33Z")
As an American growing up in Philadelphia, I can pinpoint pinpoint nearly exactly the age at which I learned this. I was 20 and was talking to a student from British Columbia and was dumbfounded when he said “zed”. I was utterly unaware of this. Now, having lived in Canada for 45 years, I have become used to it. I have a suspicion that more and more young Canadians now say “zee”. The Sesame Street effect, perhaps. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/85 "2013-05-04T02:23:48Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Canadians are just Americans who say Zed. Canada is defined as 2 weeks of bad skiing. Zed must have some link to the French language or possibly frostbite. ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/86 "2013-05-04T02:44:06Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Something which came up in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=685952&page=7)here - apparently significant numbers of Americans are unaware the letter “Z” is pronounced “Zed” in the UK (and Australia, and New Zealand). > > So: Is this really true? Are significant numbers of Americans really unaware of the Commonwealth pronounciation of the letter Z? And if so, why? I mean, all of us in the Commonwealth know you prounounce the letter “Zee”, so why not the other way around? > > I maintain, as I did in the other thread, it’s the sort of thing a reasonably intelligent adult American with an internet connection would surely have encountered at some point (YouTube clip, Dr Who, “Ways those wacky Limeys are different to us” jokes, etc) but apparently not, it seems. 😕 I thought everyone knew America was parochial. I bet most of us know it, but it’s really not important. We don’t get much outside media here. We get Dr. Who know, but it’s still a small community of nerds and geeks that watch it. Intelligence has nothing to do with this either of course: there is nothing to figure out or infer leading to the conclusion other dialects pronounce Z differently. Nor is do british people write “a b c… w x y zed.” The extent I know about the difference between dialects is mostly relegated to comedians and the ricky gervais podcast. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/87 "2013-05-04T02:49:13Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > “Zee” seems to fit better with the rest of the alphabet. I like to think that Americans decided to pronounce Z differently from the rest of the world because they thought that transcribing spelling or serial numbers from spoken word was too easy with only Cee, Dee, Eee, Gee, Pee, and Vee to get conflated. “Shucks, we hardly _ever_ get those confused, their initial phonemes are just too darned distinct. If only we had at least two letters with barely distinguishable initial phonemes \*and \*identical endings, that would be _hilarious_.” ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/88 "2013-05-04T02:53:50Z")
Where I work, I often take calls from Canadian customers, and when they spell out our company’s part numbers, which often have letters in them, they say “zed” for Z. I don’t know of any fellow employees who have been confused by that. We’re kind of close to Canada, I guess. But I, like the OP, didn’t think it was that uncommon of knowledge. On the other hand, other letters in the part numbers are often replaced by words for clarity, sometimes using the military-style “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”. Z would be Zulu there. People who don’t have a military background tend to use names “P as in Paul, D as in David, S as in Sam, T as in Tom, M as in Mary, N as in Nancy.” Strange how they almost always use the same names, too. Z is usually Zebra, though (unless it’s a Canadian, where “zed” is distinctive enough to not need clarification, even over a crappy connection.) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/89 "2013-05-04T02:55:27Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > The UK is ruled by a Queen, has a lot of old buildings, and people drink tea. Australia has kangaroos & convicts. New Zealand is the part of Australia where Xena lives. That about sums up the average American’s knowledge of the Commonwealth. “Vancouver. That was a part of America where they were smart enough to have figued out how to avoid paying taxes to Washington.” – Lazarus Long, in Heinlein’s “Time Enough for Love” ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/90 "2013-05-04T02:55:56Z")
> [@Tamex](#): > > Where I work, I often take calls from Canadian customers, and when they spell out our company’s part numbers, which often have letters in them, they say “zed” for Z. I don’t know of any fellow employees who have been confused by that. We’re kind of close to Canada, I guess. But I, like the OP, didn’t think it was that uncommon of knowledge. > > On the other hand, other letters in the part numbers are often replaced by words for clarity, sometimes using the military-style “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”. Z would be Zulu there. People who don’t have a military background tend to use names “P as in Paul, D as in David, S as in Sam, T as in Tom, M as in Mary, N as in Nancy.” Strange how they almost always use the same names, too. Z is usually Zebra, though (unless it’s a Canadian, where “zed” is distinctive enough to not need clarification, even over a crappy connection.) Yeah. I mean, even if people aren’t aware some people say “zed” instead of “zee” no one’s gonna be confused by it, I don’t think. And even having heard it, they might not make the connection immediatey. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/91 "2013-05-04T02:59:10Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > . . . there is another demonym I’m not aware of . . . I’d never heard the word “demonym” before, so this thread has been educational in more than one way! Thank you! Meanwhile, [Yuzz, Wum, Um, Humpf!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Beyond_Zebra!) ---
**Author:** ![piepiepie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47774/32.png) [@piepiepie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/piepiepie)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/92 "2013-05-04T03:29:07Z")
The leader of the Men in Black was named Zed, and the rest of the agents were named after letters, notably J and K. I’m not sure when Zee=Zed clicked for me, but I could rationalize it at a young age, around 7-8, with parental help I presume. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/93 "2013-05-04T04:02:34Z")
> [@Susie\_Derkins](#): > > I learned it from musical group All Saints in the song [Never Ever](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx6DtgW_uh0). That was back around 1998, so I would have been about 25 before I heard it. Me too! ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/94 "2013-05-04T04:24:27Z")
> [@piepiepie](#): > > The leader of the Men in Black was named Zed, and the rest of the agents were named after letters, notably J and K. I’m not sure when Zee=Zed clicked for me, but I could rationalize it at a young age, around 7-8, with parental help I presume. Wow - 92 posts to get around to mentioning _MiB_! I’ve known about 'zed" since I was a kid, 45-50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/95 "2013-05-04T04:26:41Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > _“…Are Americans really unaware the letter “Z” is pronounced “Zed” in the UK/Australia/NZ?..”_ > > Do Australians and New Zealanders know that in the US “Z” is pronounced “Zee?” Yes, of course we do. Why wouldn’t we? 😕 > [@Antinor01](#): > > Pretty much this. It’s not necessarily that Americans don’t know, it’s that it doesn’t affect the way we do things so we don’t care. That’s fine (and what I figured the answer was), but “Not caring” isn’t the same as not knowing - you know know something and not care about it. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/96 "2013-05-04T04:31:13Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > “Ways those wacky Limeys are different to us” “different from us” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/97 "2013-05-04T04:41:12Z")
Technically, I knew that–learned in in high school or college just as some kind of fact. And I thought it was pretty weird of the UK/Australia/NZ, if you want to know the truth, because all the other letters (except H and W I guess) say their name or their sound. I mean, why would you do that? Zee is not hard to say. But this is something that rarely comes up. I think I can count the times on one finger when I’ve heard some Brit sing the alphabet song.\* So it’s one of those things I knew but didn’t think about, therefore it never occurred to me that they would think the long-bearded ones were Zed Zed Top. We used to have a paper towel called Zee which had the world’s simplest jingle: “Zee Eee Eee spells Zee!” This would come out as “Zed Eee Eee spells Zee” in UK etc. which would either have been twice as hilarious as the ad in the US, or not funny at all. ---
**Author:** ![thicksantorum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@thicksantorum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thicksantorum)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/98 "2013-05-04T04:42:59Z")
Rather than USA vs UK/Commonwealth, I think a lot of these are better seen as examples of just how damn convoluted English is, especially regarding pronunciations. The quirks are with the language itself, not the people speaking it. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/99 "2013-05-04T05:33:16Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > I mean, all of us in the Commonwealth know you prounounce the letter “Zee”, so why not the other way around? It’s because we watch the same movies and shows that you do: the American ones. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2013, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399/100 "2013-05-04T07:25:10Z")
I generally shrug off stuff like this by thinking “Americans, Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis… 4 peoples separated by a common language.” I’ve known Zed = Zee for quite sometime, but it never seemed to come up very often in any BBC or ITC programs and films I’ve seen. What I’m still trying to figure out is how Aussies and Kiwis keep from falling off the bottom of the Earth. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-americans-really-unaware-the-letter-z-is-pronounced-zed-in-the-uk-australia-nz/657399.md?page=6)