[General] How do we tell the phone number when there's a zero in it?

[Heidi L]

My phone number is 0936xxxx, how do we say it? "o nine three six" or "zero nine three six"?

Thanks

 

[emsr2d2]

They're both OK. Most Brits say "oh". I use "zero" if I'm speaking to a non-native speaker of English.

 

[Rover_KE]

All British phone numbers start with a dialling code beginning with 0, so we are used to hearing and saying 'oh' for the first digit.

After that, we say 'oh' or 'zero' as the mood takes us.

 

[Raymott]

Just try not to say "Oh four zero one oh zero" for 040100.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

In American English oh and zero are both fine. No one says aught or naught anymore.

 

[Tdol]

We write nought for the little-used number in BrE.

 

[Roman55]

In American English oh and zero are both fine. No one says aught or naught anymore.

In BrE, naught means nothing, not zero.

 

[GoesStation]

Some Americans call the years 2000 through 2009 the Aughts. Some of these same people may call 2008, for example, ​aught-eight.

 

[Rover_KE]

We call them the noughties.

Heidi, please note that your title should start 'How do we say the phone number ...?'

 

[GoesStation]

We call them the noughties.

The Firesign Theater got it wrong, then. They guessed that the previous decade was going to be called the naughty nineties, a period during which people would be gettin' nekkid.​