Love, duck or zero??

I should start off by saying, "don't shoot the messenger"!

The reason I say this is, because today, this blog is devoted to a number and that number is.....

'nought', 'zero', 'nil', 'oh', love' and 'duck'.

So as you may have guessed, in British English there are a number of ways of saying the number '0'. So where do we start?

ZERO

This is also used in American English, so it means it's very flexible. You can use as a number and an adjective. It's basically fine to use it in 'most' situations.

With telephone numbers. (Zero, one, five, three six, four, two, nine, eight, one, one.)

When using a decimal point. Eg, 0.5. So you'd say (zero - point - five)

With temperatures. Temperatures tonight will be below zero.

Percentages. 0.75%. (Zero - point - seven - five - percent.)

Although personally, I still prefer to use 'oh', pronounced like the letter 'O', when saying telephone numbers.

OH

This can be used as an alternative to 'zero' in most situations, and is generally seen as British English.

With telephone numbers. (Oh, one, five, three, six, four, two, nine, eight, one, one.)

Years. He was born in 1909. (Nineteen - oh - nine.)

James Bond!! He will always be 007. (Double - oh - seven.)

NOUGHT

Again, a British English word, which isn't so commonly used today. Generally, I'd use it as an alternative for....

Percentages/using a decimal point. 0.75%. (Nought - point - seven - five - percent.)

plus,

Noughts and crosses. A game where you try and get a line of three noughts or crosses.

NIL

Nil is specifically used with sports scores. For example...

Liverpool beat Manchester United 4 - 0. (four - nil)

LOVE

Love is only used for tennis scores.

15 - 0 (fifteen - love)

30 - 0 (thirty - love)

DUCK

Duck is only used in cricket. If the player is dismissed without scoring any 'runs', he scores a 'duck.'

So, what can I say? It must be difficult for people learning English to grasp this, as it is a little confusing, but whoever said that learning a language was easy! Good luck!

Until next time........

#nativespeaker. #brzegdolnylekcje, #lekcjeangielskiego