3 ms·

More people in the world say “zee” than “zed”. I’m surprised to hear a British person wants to sound like they’re French. (I’m just kidding as I hope you are ab

by wincy 4y ago

More people in the world say “zee” than “zed”. I’m surprised to hear a British person wants to sound like they’re French. (I’m just kidding as I hope you are about beating children)

brigandish 4y ago
Thanks to India, more people in the world say "w" like "v" but I feel safe knowing that Indians have a better accent and better spelling than anyone in North America, and I would never joke about anything this serious. ;-)
hinoki 4y ago
Are you sure? I think they say zed in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. That’s quite a few English speakers.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  Canada, NZ, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria...
  - brigandish 4y ago
    From [1]: > Population > 2018 estimate > 1,352,642,280 > Official languages > Hindi > English [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
    - vinay427 4y ago
      You do realize that a minority of people in India speak English, right? As a starting point, this source lists about 128 million people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...
      - brigandish 4y ago
        You've given a figure that is around a third of the entire population of the United States, so I think I'm on safe ground, even taking into account the Indian government's well known inability at accurate record taking, but thanks for the list, Pakistan has "187,758,480" under English speakers. No chance of them saying "zee". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31983828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31983828
  - bigmealbigmeal 4y ago
    Whatever the internet tells you about what is "standard"... as someone who has spent his life in New Zealand, I can assure you the majority of under-30s usually use "zee". "Zed" is on its way out. It probably started with the popularity things like Sesame Street and Dragon Ball Z (Dragon Ball Zee). However, interestingly, the one time everyone uses "zed" is when we acronymise the country name -- NZ, or N-Zed.

by wincy 4y ago

More people in the world say “zee” than “zed”. I’m surprised to hear a British person wants to sound like they’re French. (I’m just kidding as I hope you are about beating children)

brigandish 4y ago

Thanks to India, more people in the world say "w" like "v" but I feel safe knowing that Indians have a better accent and better spelling than anyone in North America, and I would never joke about anything this serious. ;-)

hinoki 4y ago

Are you sure? I think they say zed in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. That’s quite a few English speakers.

pessimizer 4y ago
Canada, NZ, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria...
- brigandish 4y ago
  From [1]: > Population > 2018 estimate > 1,352,642,280 > Official languages > Hindi > English [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India
  - vinay427 4y ago
    You do realize that a minority of people in India speak English, right? As a starting point, this source lists about 128 million people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-s...
    - brigandish 4y ago
      You've given a figure that is around a third of the entire population of the United States, so I think I'm on safe ground, even taking into account the Indian government's well known inability at accurate record taking, but thanks for the list, Pakistan has "187,758,480" under English speakers. No chance of them saying "zee". [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31983828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31983828
- bigmealbigmeal 4y ago
  Whatever the internet tells you about what is "standard"... as someone who has spent his life in New Zealand, I can assure you the majority of under-30s usually use "zee". "Zed" is on its way out. It probably started with the popularity things like Sesame Street and Dragon Ball Z (Dragon Ball Zee). However, interestingly, the one time everyone uses "zed" is when we acronymise the country name -- NZ, or N-Zed.