Question for Canadians - do you say "zi" or "zed"?
All of the Canadian youtubers that I watch pronounce the letter z as "zi", as is done in the United States. However, I have read online that it is more common for Canadians to pronounce it as "zed", as is done in the United Kingdom. Is this a regional thing? How do you pronounce the letter z?
Like many things, it depends. I'm curious about the context where you're actually hearing YouTubers say the letter.
It's usually "zed" and we're taught it as "zed" in school - at least when i was a kid.
If I'm spelling something it is Zed. I don't think I've ever said Zee in that context.
The alphabet ends with Zee when singing it, due to the rhyme with Vee (and probably Sesame Street).
In my head I will say Nissan Zee for a Z type car. Though if I was to speak the phrase "Nissan Z type" I would say Zed.
When it is used in online slang (GG EZ) it is "Zee" for "easy".
ZZ Top is Zee Zee Top. Zorro draws a Zed. Things are Zed-shaped, not Zee-shaped in general.
It's Eee zed Pea zed!
I have always said it as “easy peasy”
They were joking. No one says easy peazed.
Lemon squee zed
Another common one for me that I didn't even notice for a while was Gen-Z, which I will always say "jenzi". Zed sounds unacceptable there, even though I say zed in most other cases besides those you've outlined.
Yeah another one I thought of is XYZ
For me it's Zed-axis, but Ecks-Why-Zee coordinates.
We are now, no longer the Canadians who say ‘zi’.
It took me the longest time to figure out whether they wanted strawberries or shrubberies.
What?
Username checks out, maybe...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Who_Say_%22Ni!%22
I am Canadian I say Zed. Plus it’s fun to watch americans lose it when I say Zed Zed Top (heehee).
clears throat
why why zee
leaves promptly
Omg, I actually do think and say it this way. Why Why Zed sounds wrong :(
why are you saying why twice in a row?
YYZ is the name of a popular instrumental song by Rush and also the airport code for Toronto Pearson.
ohh ty
Fun fact about ZZ Top. Consists of two guys famously sporting long iconic beards and one who is not. The one who is not, his name is Frank Beard.
But that totally makes sense. Would have been two guys with a beard and one with two otherwise.
Zed. Grew up in Ottawa, since lived in Montreal a long time. French also says zed.
It's also zed in French, fwiw
Zed. Zee is horrible.
Stand proud, Embrace Zed.
o7 I say it as Zed and will never fall.
both, and i never bother to correct myself, or give it any consideration.
I also say both and have no idea which one is going to come out of my mouth until it's said.
I have to catch myself to not say "Dragon Ball Zed".
Wait... It's not?
Technically it is. The Japanese pronunciation would say "Zetto" as a close approximation of "Zed".
But the English dub was done for a US audience (despite the fact that the original English dub was recorded in Canada), so they deferred to the American pronunciation of Z.
This could also be the reason Canadian YouTubers would say zee - why alienate 90% of your market, and Canadians are still used to hearing it from American media.
I doubt it's any fear of alienating them.
It is likely more the result of those youtubers growing up immersed in American media exports.
In my experience, I find it's usually g/z that tends to get the most easily confused when pronouncing as "zee," guessing because both are voiced consonants. One of those cases where I have to request phonetic alphabet spelling if call/chat quality is too low to tell.
This Canadian youtuber doesn't.
I'm Canadian, and I pronounce things the proper Canadian way.
When mentioning measurements or temperature, I use metric, and if I also happen to translate to imperial, I joke that it is a courtesy translation for the 3 countries in the world still stuck in the obsolete units.
That makes sense. I assume it's that, as well as perhaps consuming a lot of American media. I've noticed a lot of non-Americans sometimes using USD.
They export American exceptionalism as a default attitude.
And, after a century or more, it has taken hold far more than it has any right to.
I hope the increasing boycott of all things American that Trump has caused will start to reverse somehow that. But it will take a long time to undo - that shit is pervasive.
Zed is the proper Canadian way to say it. Those people just probably watch a lot of American content so it stuck for them.
Also the proper commonwealth way to say it.
It'll always be zedzedtop.
"Zed" now and forever.
Zed if I refer to the letter itself, but if it's part of a phrase, like "Gen Zee" etc. I will use that.
Ahh, i see, thank you! i think this was the majority of where my confusion lie.
I intentionally always use zed. Sure it doesn’t rhyme in American-created sayings and acronyms, but I’ll continue to say z instead.
I say zed. My kids all say zee, to my chagrin. Thanks, US children's entertainment.
I have this nasty habit of correcting people when they say Zee when it is obviously Zed.
As a teacher, I've definitely corrected over a hundred students. I do check if they're American first, though; like, fair enough if they are. But the Canadian pronunciation is zed.
Zee is better. Zed is a chore.
Zed ad absurdum.
E-zed sharpener. Eee Zed Money. That sort of thing.
Drives everyone crazy, especially if it's a Canadian or Commonwealth product.
I used to not care about this at all, but recently I am adamant about using zed. Similarly, I go out of my way to use the non-American spelling for any words that have it.
zed of course.
Don't argue with Meredith Rodney McKay.
Born and raised in the USA, only took a few months of living in Canada to switch to zed.
Also, never seen it spelt "zi" ever, lol.
“Zee’s dead, baby. Zee’s dead.”
Zed
Zed
Gen Zed
Zed.
Dunno who decided zee was a thing, but they were wrong.
US peanut gallery but I did not even know about the zed pronunciation thing until stargate atlantis. It was so confusing. Why does that guy say zpm and that guy say zedpm???
FYI. You wrote the same thing twice ;)
Zed
American here who always thought "Zed" was used for zero. Now I'm wondering if I ever made an ass of myself misinterpreting someone.
As a Canadian, I have never heard anyone refer to zero as zed. I guess in theory if I was reading out a label or something that specifically had a "Z" to signify zero I would say zed, but that's because I'm saying the letter rather than because I'm saying zero, but I can't think of any time when someone would label something as "Z" to mean zero when they could just do "0", so I don't think that's common.
Sorry bud.
It's my understanding that Zed is used in England and possibly Australia for zero. I never knew Canadians used the word at all - let alone for a different meaning - until now.
Are you sure you're not thinking of "naught"? I'll admit I don't know that Brits don't use "Zed" for zero, but I've never heard it from any British YouTuber I've watched, including maths YouTubers, nor any British TV I've watched. But it's possible one of their dialects uses it maybe?
All the ones I've heard say naught though.
For completeness I'll say Canadians typically don't say naught unless they're British themselves, we say zero.
I just did some searching, and cannot confirm what I thought was true. I've no idea where I picked it up because I've thought that was the case for decades now. Man, do I feel clueless. Sorry for the confusion. TIL.
No worries! Those are some of my favourites: a long held belief with no basis in reality. It could be something you misinterpreted once and got locked away as a fact, or something an uncle or something could have said, and they were wrong. I've had a few of those myself where I'm like "where the hell did I even get that from..." 😛
0 is Nil or naught, zed is for Z
It's a Camaro "Zed" 28
But the alphabet it's X, Y, "Zee"
X, Y, Zed
Nah, you can't fuck up the rhyming in the alphabet song
Edit: you can downvote all you want, the fact is that if you end the alphabet song with "Zed" you have to finish the rest as "next time won't you give me head" and that's just wrong
What are you talking about? Zed rhymes with Ved.
Zed
As far as I can remember I was taught in school to say it as 'zee'. But that was in secondary language classes and that was a long time ago... We definitely say it as 'zed' in French though.
I'm not Canadian, but grew up on the border and only got Canadian television stations for years. As a result, I regularly change back and forth between zee and zed.
Zed
I seem to alternate depending on context. Never really noticed until thinking back on it.
Zed
Zed
It's like "zed" of course, because I'm > 30 years old. I don't think it's a regional thing, more of a "zoomer" thing maybe?
Zed.
Zed, unless its part of a person/product name where its specifically Zee, like Jay-Zee. Otherwise, it's Gen Zed.
I have not yet encountered a Canadian who says "zi" the way I do. I've worked at schools here with ages from 12 to 22 and all of the students have said "zed" as well as every teacher and co-workers I've had.
I say zed.
For the letter or spelling something out, I'll always say "zed." I think for the most part I only say "zee" if I'm using acronyms that are either specific to US organizations or that both originated there and are still considered to be tightly associated with that country (like if I need to refer to some product from a US company, though none come to mind at the moment).
Wait, do you pronounce "zi" like "zih" or like "zie"
It's the same as "sea" but with a z sound
Zie. (Edited, I misunderstood the question)
for my family, it’s very much Zed. jay zed, zed zed top,
To your question, I have a similar one... Do Canadians say tom"ay"to or tom"ah"to? 🍅
What about potato?
I spell my name with a zed not a zi. From Sask
At the risk of being unpopular, I say zee. I've been corrected so many times by my friends, but I spent a lot of time in the US and it just stuck. Plus, the alphabet song specifically says zee, and I'm not arguing with that.
it doess??? ours says zed
Weird, the alphabet song says zed for me because that's what I choose to say.
Zed doesn't rhyme with V though.