# How do you pronounce "Z"?



## Zeppelin (Jan 23, 2012)

Apprarently other countries pronounce it "Zed" instead of "Zee".


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## Frostbite (May 14, 2013)

Zed? wtf

Rabble Rabble!


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## nevermuse (Jul 7, 2013)

Frostbite said:


> Zed? wtf
> 
> Rabble Rabble!


I say Zed, but that's how I was taught it in school.

I believe it's pronounced Zed in Middle English as well as French, so that's probably why they taught it to us that way. (The school I went to for kindergarten introduced us to various languages.) I think 'Zee' is just most common in America.


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## musiclover55 (Feb 7, 2011)

I say "zee". Never even heard of anyone pronouncing it as "zed."


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## coldsorehighlighter (Jun 2, 2010)

Zee makes more sense, in terms of the alphabet song and rhyming with other letters like Bee, Cee, Dee, Eee, Gee, Pee, Tee, Vee...but I say Zed because I'm Canadian, and that's how we do it up here, okay buddy?


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## SuperSky (Feb 16, 2011)

Zed in 'Straya, mate.


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## coldsorehighlighter (Jun 2, 2010)

Hadron said:


> I pronounce it as "zed" and I call JZ "jay zed".


Lol, awesome...


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## Zatch (Apr 28, 2013)

I say "zee", but it's pronounced "zaytah" in Spanish.


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## Haruhi (Jul 8, 2011)

mmm i'm aussie and think i was taught as "zee" maybe depends on the teacher/school.


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## Polar (Dec 16, 2006)

Like "Set".


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Hadron said:


> I pronounce it as "zed" and I call JZ "jay zed".


:lol - He is now afraid that he is going to be a bad dad to his daughter Blue Ivy.



the cheat said:


> Lol, awesome...


Jay Zed
In this thread *WORD!*



Veracity said:


> I say "zee", but it's pronounced "zaytah" in Spanish.


Yep....it's "zeta" :banana

I pronounce it "Zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee". :haha


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

i think people in north america pronounce it zed but i still prefer zeeeeeee


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## Frostbite (May 14, 2013)

monotonous said:


> i think people in north america pronounce it zed but i still prefer zeeeeeee


Who in north america? the canadians? I guess the french canadians obviously do. don't know about the regular ones


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

Frostbite said:


> Who in north america? the canadians? I guess the french canadians obviously do. don't know about the regular ones


yeah i mean canadians, don't know about americans but i think english pronounce it zee


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## Milco (Dec 12, 2009)

> In most dialects of English, the letter's name is 'zed' /ˈzɛd/, reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta, but in American English, its name is 'zee' /ˈziː/, deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal form


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z

I usually prefer British English to American English, so I pronounce it 'zed'.
That's much closer to the Danish pronunciation as well.. to any other language really.


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

Last time I checked, it's pronounced as 'Zee' only in the North American dialects, so essentially the US and Canada say 'Zee', every other dialect of English (UK, South Africa, Australia, NZ, etc) pronounces it as 'Zed'. 

That doesn't mean 'Zebra is pronounced as 'Zedbra', it means it is pronounced as 'Zehbra' and not the American pronunciation of 'Zeee-bra'. Its only really the intonation of the Z that changes.


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## RayOfLight123 (Dec 4, 2009)

I live in England so I pronounce it Zed


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## Occasional Hope (Dec 9, 2012)

I've only really ever heard North Americans pronounce it zee. Even the people I know who don't have English as their first language pronounce it zed but I guess that's because they're living here and going with the local pronunciation.


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## farfegnugen (Aug 16, 2010)




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## RelinquishedHell (Apr 10, 2012)

musiclover55 said:


> I say "zee". Never even heard of anyone pronouncing it as "zed."


They do in the UK. I used to chat with a British friend on skype and I can't remember what we were talking about, but he said something along the lines of "From A to Zed". I had to pause and ask him to repeat that.


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## FireIsTheCleanser (Aug 16, 2011)

Zzzz. Like a normal person. In Spain they pronounce it with a 'th.' My Spanish teacher used to pronounce it that way even though she wasn't from Spain and she would emphasize it in worlds like 'thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhapatos.' It was really annoying.


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## RadioactivePotato (Jan 6, 2013)

"Zee"


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## BillDauterive (Oct 24, 2012)

"Zee"

'Murica!


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## Ape in space (May 31, 2010)

I think the US is the only place where they pronounce it wrong. Everywhere else they say it the right way.



Alas Babylon said:


> Last time I checked, it's pronounced as 'Zee' only in the North American dialects, so essentially the US and Canada say 'Zee', every other dialect of English (UK, South Africa, Australia, NZ, etc) pronounces it as 'Zed'.


In Canada it's 'zed'.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

the cheat said:


> Zee makes more sense, in terms of the alphabet song and rhyming with other letters like Bee, Cee, Dee, Eee, Gee, Pee, Tee, Vee...but I say Zed because I'm Canadian, and that's how we do it up here, okay buddy?


Same on all counts lol (about the rhyming) except I'm British not Canadian. It's zed in the UK too (I think every where in the UK, but definitely at least in England.)


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

Ape in space said:


> I think the US is the only place where they pronounce it wrong. Everywhere else they say it the right way.
> 
> In Canada it's 'zed'.


That makes more sense actually, thanks for pointing that out. So only 'Muricans say 'zeee' then?


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## BillDauterive (Oct 24, 2012)

Alas Babylon said:


> That makes more sense actually, thanks for pointing that out. So only 'Muricans say 'zeee' then?


It seems that way. :0
But I guess we do live in our very big bubble, haha.


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

TheBLA said:


> It seems that way. :0
> But I guess we do live in our very big bubble, haha.


I'm still convinced that Americans would rather speak their own language instead of English, they change the spelling, they pronounce everything weirdly (tomayto, zeee-bra, watahr, etc), they have weird sayings like "_having your cake and eating it too_"*, the list goes on. Sooner or later Americans are just going to have to make it official and say they don't speak English, they speak Murican, and that is all.

*What the actual f!ck does that even mean? It doesn't make sense. How much cake do these Americans have?


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## Raeden (Feb 8, 2013)

the cheat said:


> I say Zed because I'm Canadian, and that's how we do it up here, okay buddy?


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## nullptr (Sep 21, 2012)

I pronounce it "Zee", thus im american.

I seriously didn't know it was pronounced "zed" in the commonwealth countries, at first I thought you all meant "zeed", with a long e but I guess not after watching this very very creepy video.






^ I needed to confirm it was pronounced differently because this was a life changing moment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z#Name_and_pronunciation
Apparently american english is the only langauge that doesn't pronounce it like "zed" or "zeta" or a similar form, that's what never leaving the u.s does to you :lol.


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## AlchemyFire (Mar 4, 2013)

Zed, I had to teach myself to say it like that though, since I'm in Canada and it's the "proper" way to pronounce it here. I always used to say zee.


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## MindOverMood (Dec 12, 2009)

Dragon Ball Zed


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## zojirushi (Apr 8, 2013)

^


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## monotonous (Feb 1, 2013)

MindOverMood said:


> Dragon Ball Zed


lmao


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## SuperSky (Feb 16, 2011)

MindOverMood said:


> Dragon Ball Zed


That's the one case where we don't.


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## Marakunda (Jun 7, 2011)

I pronounce it "Zee". 

A lot of Canadians pronounce it Zee actually, a lot more then you'd think. Zed sounds odd to me. Then again I'm technically an American by birth, and I learned the alphabet in America, so yeah. A lot of kids in my old (Canadian) school used to say Zee though, most of them in fact.


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## MindOverMood (Dec 12, 2009)

SuperSky said:


> That's the one case where we don't.


Yeah, that's the only time I say zee instead of zed.


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## Soundboy (Feb 16, 2013)

I say zed


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## KelsKels (Oct 4, 2011)

Wtf? People say zed? Weird. Ive never heard it said that way before. When I say it, it sounds more like "see" than "zee".


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Alas Babylon said:


> I'm still convinced that Americans would rather speak their own language instead of English, they change the spelling, they pronounce everything weirdly (tomayto, zeee-bra, watahr, etc), they have weird sayings like "_having your cake and eating it too_"*, the list goes on. Sooner or later Americans are just going to have to make it official and say they don't speak English, they speak Murican, and that is all.
> 
> *What the actual f!ck does that even mean? It doesn't make sense. How much cake do these Americans have?


the spellings are consistently different but some of the words and pronunciations vary, some people on the East coast pronounce certain words like I do, where as elsewhere in the US they don't. *shrugs* also almost every dialect of England changes something.


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## cooperativeCreature (Sep 6, 2010)

I say "Zod".


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## SnowFlakesFire (Aug 23, 2012)

tssssssssssss :teeth


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## louiselouisa (Jul 12, 2012)

More like 'zet' but I chose 'zed' just because

'zee' still makes sense compared to 'double u', it's truly the most unconvenient spelling of one single letter.


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## Chieve (Oct 9, 2012)

zee

zed? lol


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## wallenstein (Mar 27, 2013)

Zed of course


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## GenoWhirl (Apr 16, 2011)

I'm Canadian and I say "zee" because me to "zed" sounds stupid as sh*t.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Alas Babylon said:


> I'm still convinced that Americans would rather speak their own language instead of English, they change the spelling, they pronounce everything weirdly (tomayto, zeee-bra, watahr, etc), they have weird sayings like "_having your cake and eating it too_"*, the list goes on. Sooner or later Americans are just going to have to make it official and say they don't speak English, they speak Murican, and that is all.
> 
> *What the actual f!ck does that even mean? It doesn't make sense. How much cake do these Americans have?


oh, also that phrase predates the USA. There's recordings of similar phrases back in the 1500's.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

Zed in french and zee in english.


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## marokji (Aug 4, 2012)

When Iwas in elementary school, I would pronouce it as "zed", but now it's zee. so yeah, ZEE.


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

Persephone The Dread said:


> oh, also that phrase predates the USA. There's recordings of similar phrases back in the 1500's.


Oh, so it's similar to how Americans say 'Fall' for Autumn and Australians say 'Paddock' for field then? In that the term has fallen out of use in the UK since. That makes more sense actually.


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## Genetic Garbage (May 7, 2011)

I was taught british english in school so I pronounce it 'zed'. The first time I have heard people pronounce it 'zee' was when I went to the Philippines. 'Zee' sounds ridiculous to me. It's also far closer to the german pronunciation of the letter 'Z'.


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## Dark Shines (Feb 11, 2013)

Being from the UK, I use Zed, unless I'm talking about sleep related Z's, then I tend to Americanize them. e.g. _"I need to catch some Zees." _Zee just sounds more funky in that context.


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## Ape in space (May 31, 2010)

Whenever I'm at the US border crossing and I see the 'EZ pass' lane, I always say 'E-Zed pass'. I refuse to compromise.


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## Charmander (Sep 5, 2012)

Zed. I only realised Americans say it differently a few years ago when I heard the radio station say "Jay-Zee". :b


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## Lil Sebastian (Feb 26, 2012)

Zed, although I've found myself occasionally saying zee without meaning to. That being said, I always make sure to call those hairy men "Zed Zed Top".


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## Cletis (Oct 10, 2011)

"Zee." :blank


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## jingybopa (Jan 26, 2011)

Alas Babylon said:


> I'm still convinced that Americans would rather speak their own language instead of English, they change the spelling, they pronounce everything weirdly (tomayto, zeee-bra, watahr, etc), they have weird sayings like "_having your cake and eating it too_"*, the list goes on. Sooner or later Americans are just going to have to make it official and say they don't speak English, they speak Murican, and that is all.
> 
> *What the actual f!ck does that even mean? It doesn't make sense. How much cake do these Americans have?


Tomato comes from the Spanish "Tomate", which in turn comes from the Nahuatl "tomatl" Zebra comes from the portuguese.

My point is just that neither of those words are English in origin.

An article by a British person pointing out (among other things) several examples of where American spelling is more historically accurate than British: 
http://www.kaa.ff.ukf.sk/staff/macura/Essays AmE/7 The British Dont Know How to Spell.pdf

on having your cake and eating it to: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20FOB-onlanguage-t.html


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

jingybopa said:


> Tomato comes from the Spanish "Tomate", which in turn comes from the Nahuatl "tomatl" Zebra comes from the portuguese.
> 
> My point is just that neither of those words are English in origin.
> 
> ...


I think I should give up on sarcasm over the internet, it just isn't working for me anymore. I was being somewhat sardonic with my comment, albeit misguidedly  I wasn't seriously considering 'American' all that distinct from English. It'll be a long time before any English dialect does an Afrikaans and becomes it's own language.

Thanks for the information though, it was most informative.


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## OwlGirl (Jun 28, 2013)

We pronounce it "Zed" :no


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## Chieve (Oct 9, 2012)

I'm confused...how do you pronounce Z like Zed, I never heard that.

Is it like Zed like edd, or special ed, or bed, or fed, or dead...its so weird....i never heard that...

or is it pronounced like zed like stead or bead


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## OwlGirl (Jun 28, 2013)

Chieve said:


> I'm confused...how do you pronounce Z like Zed, I never heard that.
> 
> Is it like Zed like edd, or special ed, or bed, or fed, or dead...its so weird....i never heard that...
> 
> or is it pronounced like zed like stead or bead


Where I'm from we say Zz-ed (using the same Z sound taken from Zone not Zebra / 'Zee'bra
It depends on your accent sometimes, over here some say -ed & others -et.
But perhaps an Australian pronounces it as Zz-ead so it sounds like 'Zeed'


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

Chieve said:


> I'm confused...how do you pronounce Z like Zed, I never heard that.
> 
> Is it like Zed like edd, or special ed, or bed, or fed, or dead...its so weird....i never heard that...
> 
> or is it pronounced like zed like stead or bead


The letter itself is called Zed, so you would say "A to Zed" and not "A to Zee", however, it isn't pronounced as Zed in actual words ,the _d_ is dropped.

To explain,whereas an American would say Zebra like _Zee_-bra, anyone else from the UK, Australia, South Africa and so on would say _Zeh_-bra ,not _Zed_-bra because, as I said, the _d_ sound is dropped from Zed.


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## Cronos (Mar 31, 2013)




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## Glass Child (Feb 28, 2013)

zED WHERe


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## Monotony (Mar 11, 2012)

Zed, especially when there's Americans around to hear it.


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## mightypillow (May 18, 2012)

Alas Babylon said:


> it isn't pronounced as Zed in actual words ,the _d_ is dropped.


We americans don't have the time for this letter dropping. 
Zee is the way to go.


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## Raphael200 (Aug 18, 2012)

I dont know.


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## marko delic (Aug 6, 2013)

where i come from we pronounce it "Z"..but english z i would say "Zee"


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## CristianNC (Jun 24, 2012)

Glass Child said:


> zED WHERe


I knew I was going to find this. I knew it!

Anyway, my English teachers always taught me to pronounce Z as "Zed" but "Zee" made more sense.


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## WinterDave (Dec 5, 2003)

All roads lead to Rome....

And right now, America is Rome....

So the correct pronunciation is....

*Zee....*


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

WinterDave said:


> All roads lead to Rome....
> 
> And right now, America is Rome....
> 
> ...


Not where I am :lol


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## Charmander (Sep 5, 2012)

Zed sounds better.


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## Alas Babylon (Aug 28, 2012)

Charmander said:


> Zed sounds better.


+1


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## Tabris (Jul 14, 2013)

Zed.


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## Nono441 (May 14, 2012)

I used to pronounce it "zed" (because that's how it's pronounced in French) but after being asked to repeat myself too many times over here I've decided to go with "zee" instead for convenience.

But this is just a trivial detail, I don't even


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## BTAG (Jun 27, 2013)

Cronos said:


>


One of my favorite villains of all time


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## Jesuszilla (May 26, 2013)

There is a Russian woman who says "zed" at work and the first time I heard her say it I had no clue what the hell she was trying to spell.


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## tilo brown eyes (Jun 7, 2013)

Zeppelin said:


> Apprarently other countries pronounce it "Zed" instead of "Zee".


I'm british, and here people pronounce it "zed" but for some reason I've always said "zee" instead.


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