# "O" or "Oh" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377 "2014-11-23T01:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Cardboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardboard)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/1 "2014-11-23T01:44:08Z")
What is the difference between “O” (O Canada) and “Oh” (Oh my goodness)? Which one is grammatically correct? Was “O” in vogue before “oh” or vice versa? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/2 "2014-11-23T01:59:29Z")
O is just olde-fashioned. I don’t think there’s any difference other than style. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/3 "2014-11-23T02:02:25Z")
> [@Cardboard](#): > > What is the difference between “O” (O Canada) and “Oh” (Oh my goodness)? Which one is grammatically correct? Was “O” in vogue before “oh” or vice versa? As I use it and understand it, O is a marker of the vocative, that is, when you’re addressing someone or something. So, “O Captain, my captain,” is addressing someone. Whereas “oh” is an interjection like, “Oh! So that’s the secret!” That said, I do see “oh” sometimes introduce a vocative phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/4 "2014-11-23T02:09:21Z")
“O” is used in English to indicate the equivalent of the vocative case (where the speaker is addressing another, in this case, Canada), in a poetical form. Since English lacks declensions to show cases, “O” is the method used. “Oh” is usually considered an interjection. It can be used in place of “O”, but some stylists argue that it should just be used as an interjection. For more info, see the wiki article on the vocative case, in the section dealing with English. > **[Vocative case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocative_case)** > > In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated VOC) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address by which the identity of the party spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence. For example, in the sentence "I don't know, John," John is a vocative expression that indic... ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/5 "2014-11-23T02:11:33Z")
My dictionary says Oh and O are the same word. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/o-or-oh/705377/6 "2014-11-23T05:57:40Z")
I’m almost certain I remember a thread on this question just a few weeks ago. But I’m not seeing anything from Googling it. > [@Lewis Carroll](#): > > ‘Would it be of any use, now,’ thought Alice, ‘to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.’ So she began: ‘O Mouse, do you know the way out of this pool? I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!’ (Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse: she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having seen in her brother’s Latin Grammar, ‘A mouse—of a mouse—to a mouse—a mouse—O mouse!’) The Mouse looked at her rather inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little eyes, but it said nothing. For most of my life, I had been under the impression that “O” was a title or formalism that indicated great respect, to be used when addressing an elder or a superior. I never understood (until having ignorance fought right here on SDMD) that is was used simply to address _anybody_. I think I got this impression because I only ever saw it used in prayerbooks, and specifically in the expression “O God”.